The Winds of Change Saga: Silent Storm
by Shinzui Naru
Summary: (Book 1 in the saga) Some changes start to take place in the world of Gundam Wing...


****

Silent Storm

~*~

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from Gundam Wing. I never have and probably never will. I do, however, own Rayne and the Riverdown Gundam...as well as any other characters I've made up all on my own in this fic.

Setting: After the battle in the Sank Kingdom, but the Gundam pilots stayed on Earth. This is just before Treize takes over the Romafellar Foundation.

Other Notes: I only get to see the American version of the show, so that's what this story's about. I'm very sorry if I spelled anything wrong. If I did, just let me know and I'll fix it. Tell me if you like it!

**__**

Chapter 1: Mysterious Guest

Heero silently walked down the street, looking around as if he was searching for something. His eyes darted back and forth to the people he passed. People who didn't know any better than to think he was a normal person. No one could have suspected anything...unless they got to know him better. Which he wouldn't let them do. 

He barely noticed when he ran into someone.

"Hey," she objected. Heero looked at her. She was about his age, maybe a little younger. She glared at him, waiting for an apology.

"Excuse me," he said half-heartedly, and then continued walking. The girl watched him leave, a secretive smile on her face.

"No problem," she called to him. More quietly she added, "No problem at all." Then she looked at the small, black square object in her hand, smiled a little more, and walked away.

~*~

The room was dark, with only a small desk lamp producing enough light to fill it. Two people stood near the middle of the room, talking.

"I have this." One of them pulled out a roll of money. "Is that enough?"

"It will do," the other person told the first. The money disappeared into the second figure's hand, as did a small disk. "Thank you." The first person left the room. The second went to a desk and clicked a button. A computer monitor flashed on.

"This shouldn't be hard," the person, a man who might have been in his twenties, muttered. He put the disk into its correct drive and a small password window came up. The man smiled to himself and started trying to hack into the disk.

After a few hours of unsuccessfully trying to open the disk, the man was about to give up for the night. He looked at the small wall clock in front of him.

"It's almost midnight," he said. "I can quit now, get into the disk tomorrow, and she won't even know I stopped." He looked at the password box. It mocked him with its simplicity. The option was so simple...and yet, he had tried for hours to come up with the correct password and failed miserably. 

__

"Let me try once more..." He gathered his thoughts and turned on the small battery radio on the desk. When the static cleared, he began to listen to the news. Mostly about the Romafeller Foundation and the Sank kingdom. "Why don't I try this..." the man mumbled to himself as he leaned over the keyboard and typed in a series of six symbols. He pressed the enter key and the screen flashed black for a minute. The man held his breath.

Suddenly, the screen turned white again, and files began to pop up. The man laughed.

"So that's it. I'm surprised I didn't think of it before." He double-clicked on a file and it opened up. The man took a sip of his coffee and nearly spit it out.

__

"How the hell did she get this?!" he wondered. On the screen were the design patterns for Gundam 01.

~*~

A young teenager knocked on the unmarked door of the old building impatiently. It slowly opened, a man looking out from behind it.

"Oh," he said after seeing her. "It's you. Come on in." She nodded and walked in. 

"Did you open the disk?" she asked. The man nodded. "Good. What's on it?"

"You'll never believe it," he whispered, shutting the door. "It's the design for a Gundam!"

"I believe it," the girl told him. "Does it have the name of the pilot? Or any information on him?"

"What I wanna know is how you got this," the man demanded.

"I stole it from some guy on the street. No big deal," the girl told him, shrugging.

"No big deal?!"

"Listen, calm down. Tell me the password to the disk."

"Rayne, I swear...if you keep getting me into these messes, I'm gonna get hauled away by the Foundation some day," the man mumbled. He leaned down and whispered into the girl's ear.

"Okay. Now, was there any information on the pilot or not?" the girl, Rayne, asked.

"I didn't look. You're free to, though." Rayne walked over to the computer and sat down. "But not here! I don't wanna get into trouble by havin' those here!" Rayne nodded and stood.

"I understand. Just give me the disk and I'll be going." The man took the disc out of its drive and handed it to Rayne. "Thank you," she told him as she left.

~*~

"So we have a Gundam pilot here, huh?" Rayne asked herself. "I wonder if the guy who had these was the pilot." She sat down at her computer and put the disk in. Then she input the password that she had been given. Files opened on the screen. She double-clicked on one. "Bingo!" she hissed. It was about the pilot.

"Hmm...that looks a lot like...it is! _He's_ the pilot!" She looked at the name under the picture of the pilot. "Heero? This is interesting..." 

"Miss Rayne!" She looked at the window that popped up on her screen.

"Yes?" she answered.

"It's about your, ah, cargo."

"Go on."

"It's almost ready. Are you sure you want to-"

"I have to," Rayne said. "For my sake, and theirs."

"Then come down here and make sure we're getting the settings right. Just to see if you like what we're doing so far."

"I'm on my way."

~*~

Rayne looked around until she found one of the engineers.

"Well?" she asked.

"Just take a took," the engineer told her. Rayne took his advice and turned to a wall. She saw a huge object, propped up and covered with a large tarp.

"When will it be ready?"

"By the tomorrow, if we play our cards right."

"Good," Rayne said. "I need to get started as soon as possible.

"Miss Rayne, if I may ask a question?" 

"Go ahead."

"How did you acquire this?" the engineer asked. Rayne looked at him and sighed.

"It's a long story and I really don't want to tell it. I'm sorry if that doesn't satisfy you, but-"

"Its alright. The person who built this must be...well, brilliant," the engineer muttered.

__

"Then my father was brilliant. It's too bad he had to die. But Father...I will find who killed you," Rayne thought. It was a promise that she made more to herself than to her late father. She used it to restore her faith in battle, renewing the vow countless times. But it was naver fulfilled. Rayne had begun to feel that the promise never would be.

She shook her head and yawned.

"You should get some rest." Rayne looked at the engineer, and then to the covered operation in the cavernous room. "We'll finish working on it tonight. As I said, you should be ready to go by morning." Rayne nodded.

"Okay. And sir?" 

"Thomas," the man told her. "That's nice, Rayne, don't even learn the name of the man who proactically saved your life," Rayne thought bitterly.

"Thomas, then. Thank you." Thomas smiled and went back to his work.

__

"I feel sorry for her," he thought to himself. "Maybe if nothing had ever happened...maybe if they had lived...things could be different."

Meanwhile, Rayne had gone to her small room and practically collapsed onto the bed. Immediately she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

~*~

She awoke the next morning to see the sun coming up over the horizon. She walked to the small window in the room and stared at it.

"You miss so much living in the colonies. The sunrise is so beautiful...did Mother and Father ever get to see things like this?" Rayne stretched her arms up towards the ceiling. She was moderately tall, reaching almost a head above many other girls her age. To add to her tomboyish appearance her dark brown hair was cut just below her chin, with a blue streak in her left bangs that just barely reached her blue-violet eyes.

Remembering what Thomas had told her the previous night, Rayne ran towards the maintenance bay of the compound she was staying at, not even bothering to run a brush through her hair.

"Is it-" Rayne stopped as she entered the maintenance area. In front of her stood the most magnificent mobile suit she had ever seen.

~*~

"Damn," Heero Yuy whispered as he searched his pockets. He had that disk when he left...where had it gone? How long had it been missing? If anyone could have guessed the password...he would be in trouble.

He calmly tried to retrace his steps in his mind. _"Where could I have put it?" _he asked himself. Maybe someone had stolen it...but without him finding out? Who could have known he even had it?

Heero growled under his breath and continued searching. He would find it. Sooner or later.

~*~

Rayne went to the nearest computer and took a disk from her pocket, putting it in the drive and typing the password. She then clicked on the pilot profile to find out where he was staying. He would be the first one she went to. And he would lead her to the others...so she hoped.

When she was done, she put the disk away and walked to the maintenance bay.

"The carrier is ready to go," Thomas told her. "Whenever you are."

"Great. Then let's get going," Rayne suggested. Thomas led her to where the carrier waited. He let her go ahead and stayed to watch the large plane take off.

"Thank you again," Rayne called as she boarded the plane.

"Any time," he replied. With a flash of a smile, Rayne was inside the plane and it was leaving the small base.

~*~

She looked at the piece of paper she had printed out, then at the number on the door in front of her. _"This should be the right place."_ She cautiously turned the doorknob. It was unlocked. _"What kind of careless fool is he, leaving the door unlocked for everyone?"_ she wondered. _"Maybe he isn't a pilot. Most pilots would have the sense to lock the damn door behind them."_

Rayne slowly, carefully pushed the door open, praying that it wouldn't make a sound. It didn't. She peered inside to see a young teenager -probably no older than herself- searching frantically through almost everything in the room. He began to turn around and Rayne pulled the door shut a little more than it was. She could barely see his face.

__

"That's him!" she thought eagerly. She waited patiently for him to move away.

"What are you doing, young lady?" Rayne's eyes widened as the loud voice thundered through the silent hall. The young man inside the room turned towards the door. Rayne spun around. 

__

"A security guard?" she wondered. "I...um, well, that is-" She laughed nervously and leaned against the door, carefully pulling it shut. The guard glared at her and she stopped babbling. The door that Rayne was leaning on began to open, making her topple backwards as her arms flailed wildly, trying to grab the door frame. Her fingers brushed against it but slipped off, and she thought she would hit the floor. But instead she landed in someone's arms.

Rayne looked up. It was him, Heero. She quickly jumped up and looked from him to the security guard.

"Well, guess I'd better be going." She grinned widely like an idiot, laughed again, and began to walk away. Both Heero and the guard let her leave.

As soon as she turned the corner she stomped her foot.

"How could I be so _stupid_?! Jeez, Rayne, that was a good start," she muttered to herself. Then she remembered the disk. "I even had an excuse! Augh!" She left the building, hoping that the next time she wouldn't make the same mistake.

**__**

Chapter 2: The Search

"Well, Rayne, guess you know how much of a genius you are now." Rayne scolded herself in her mind over and over as she walked away from the building.

"Now the problem is where I'm going to stay. There aren't many places where you can hide such a...a thing," she muttered as she looked at the flatbed truck she was borrowing, with the tarp covering whatever was laying on it. "I wish I had the other pilots' information. It would be a lot easier."

She opened the driver seat door and jumped in, sitting in thought for a few minutes before she actually got going.

The radio was on, and she listened closely to the latest news broadcast. They were talking about an attack that was going on, involving one of the Gundams.

"Gundam 02 has a noticeable advantage, which would be the pilot's skill, but he is significantly outnumbered. We'll bring you more coverage as it becomes available." Rayne smiled and turned off the radio.

"Looks like I won't have to look for you after all, pilot."

~*~

"C'mon Deathscythe, let's show them what you got," Gundam pilot Duo Maxwell muttered as he concentrated on the mobile dolls he was attacking. _"They just keep coming,"_ he noticed. 

Light from the Gundam's beam scythe arced across the sky, lingering for a moment after Duo had rammed the scythe into a mobile doll. He attacked anything and everything that wa resisting him, barely noticing that the majority of the mobile dolls were surrounding him. He was too busy getting rid of them.

A shot was fired by one of the mobile dolls, barely penetrating the Gundam. But Duo noticed the shot anyways, turned around, and easily sliced the suit in half.

"If you're going to try and destroy me while my back's turned, you might as well use something more powerful," he said to no one at all. He continued to retaliate even as more mobile dolls were released, and they began to surround him.

~*~

Duo looked around at the lines of mobile dolls around him, all with their small beam cannons ready to fire at him if needed.

"Damn," he hissed. Then he looked at the self-detonation device hesitantly. "Well, I guess I have no other chioce," he muttered as his hand hovered above the button.

"Need some help?" Duo's hand flinched, and he looked up.

"What?" he asked.

"I was just flying by and saw you surrounded by all of these mobile dolls, and I was wondering if you might need a little help. But if you've got things under control..."

"Who are you?"

"Don't ask questions. Just fight. And, um, look to your left." Duo did so, and he nearly jumped in surprise. A large blue mobile suit was just landing near him. 

"Another Gundam?!" 

"Just FIGHT!" the pilot yelled. Without another word, Duo began to attack the mobile doll troops again. The other Gundam did the same, getting rid of many of them with a beam cannon.

Together they dealt noticeable damage to the mobile doll troops, and most of those remaining retreated. Duo and the unknown pilot attacked and destroyed the rest. The extensive battle was over in the time of a few hours.

~*~

Duo looked over at the light blue Gundam.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked the pilot. 

"Don't ask," the pilot replied. Duo saw the figure of a pilot stepping out of the Gundam. He did the same. But he took a double-take as soon as he realized who the pilot was.

"Hey! You're-" he began, but the pilot cut him off, saying, "You didn't notice before now?" Duo scowled and continued.

"You're a girl!" Duo finished. The pilot crossed her arms.

"Yeah, so? You have a problem with that?" Duo didn't say anything. The pilot laughed. "My name's Rayne Cetauri. Who are you?" she called to him.

"Duo Maxwell," he replied. For the first time, Rayne got the chance to fully look over Duo's Gundam.

__

"It isn't him," she noted. "Guess I'll have to keep looking."

~*~

Duo cleared his throat and looked up at Rayne's Gundam. 

"Your Gundam...does it have a name?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rayne told him. "I called 'em Riverdown."

"Huh...why?"

"That's what he wanted me to call him." Duo stared at her in disbelief.

"It _wanted_ you to call it Riverdown?" he inquired.

"Yeah. When I came to Earth from the colonies, I left without any resources, and hardly any fuel. Riverdown's fuel ran out about a third of the way here, and we floated the rest of the way. I had gone about two and a half days without water or food. I passed out on my way into the atmosphere. When I woke up, Riverdown had landed, and we were by a stream. 

After learning of my arrival, some engineers came and picked me and the Gundam up, making necessary repairs to Riverdown and making sure I stayed alive. While I was staying with them, I decided to call him Riverdown because he had landed by the river. It's my way of thanking him, for saving my life."

"Okay. I get it. But...you were part of Operation Meteor? I thought it was just the five of us," Duo said. Rayne shook her head.

"I'm not part of the plan. My parents...they were highly respected in the colonies. My father was one of the best pilots I knew of. And he was building a Gundam for himself. But I got it instead."

"I get it. Did something happen to your parents?" 

"Um...I don't want to talk about them. Why don't you tell me what your mission here was?" Duo shrugged.

"To destroy the base."

"That's evident. Or is that just a way of indirectly telling me that it doesn't need to be discussed?" Rayne pried. Duo laughed and leaned back.

"Think of it however you want. Why'd you come here?"

"We're sure asking a lot of questions, aren't we?" Rayne joked. "I came here to help you out, of course."

"I hope you don't want a reward or anything," Duo told her.

"No. I was just looking for all the Gundam pilots. I have to repay one of them for something. But I don't know who pilots the Wing Zero."

"I don't know who the pilot of Wing Zero is."

"I know where one of the other pilots is. His name's Heero Yuy. Know him?"

"Heero Yuy? Yeah, I know him...kind of."

"'Kind of?'"

"He's one of those people who doesn't let anyone get to know him," Duo explained.

"I see. What about the other pilots? Do you know where they are?"

"Actually...nope, I don't. Sorry." Rayne sighed.

"I guess...well, if you're getting back to...to wherever, I'll be going," she said. Standing up, she put on her dark green jacket over her white sleeveless shirt and began to walk away, putting her hands in the pockets of her jeans.

"Hey...Rayne?" Duo asked as she left. Rayne stopped and turned around.

"You're a pretty good fighter. Y'know, for a-" Rayne smiled and walked away again, but interrupted him when she called, "Thanks, Duo. I hope I'll have the chance to fight with you again." And then she was gone.

__

"Where do I go from here?" Rayne asked herself as she boarded her truck, which she had since loaded her Gundam onto. _"Duo didn't have the Wing Zero...maybe that other pilot did? Was it Heero?"_ She shook her head. She would go back to him next. There was something about him that made her think that he was the one she was looking for...

~*~

Rayne looked up at the building again like it was a tomb. What if he had moved on to his next mission, or...she remembered what had happened earlier. _"Okay, time to get serious. This isn't just fun and games any more. This is my mission, my assignment. He could be the one..."_

"Hey." Rayne turned around. It was him again!

"H-Heero..." she stammered. 

"What are you doing here?" Heero demanded. Rayne straightened up and looked down at him. He was rather short to be a pilot. But...in a mobile suit, height didn't matter. Heero repeated his question.

"I think I have something of yours," she said. "But I wasn't sure." Heero glared at her.

"What is it?"

"A disk. It has some very...interesting information on it." Rayne pulled the diskette from her pocket and held it up.

"Where did you get that?"

"That depends on where _you_ got it. You a pilot?" Heero didn't answer her. She gritted her teeth and scowled. "Maybe you didn't hear me right. Are you a pilot or not?" Still, no reply. Rayne shrugged. "Guess you don't need this disk so badly after all." She began to put it back in her pocket and turned away. She heard a slight _click_ and looked over her shoulder. Heero had pulled out a gun and was pointing it straight at her back. Rayne smiled.

"I knew I had the right guy." She stood still, knowing that if she moved he could very well pull the trigger. She had to get some information from him. And she couldn't do that if she was dead, or injured.

"What are you here for?" Heero asked.

"I told you, I have your disk. Or do you suffer from a short-term memory?" Heero lowered the gun.

"I could kill you and just take the disk," he pointed out.

"But I could have changed the password," Rayne retorted, knowing very well that she hadn't.

__

"Why don't I just kill her?" Heero asked himself. Rayne wondered the same thing.

"I need some information," Rayne said, "About the Wing Zero." Heero's eye flinched barely, just enough so Rayne could detect it.

"I don't know anything about it," Heero lied.

"That's not true. You and I both know it. Now, what do you know about the Wing Zero?" She pulled out Heero's disk. "I'll give you this if you tell me." Heero looked from Rayne's stony face to the disk in her hands. She could turn it over to anyone and they would have practically all of the information on Heero and Gundam 01.

"What do you want to know about it?"

"The pilot. Who is he? Who was pilot when some of the colonies were destroyed?" Rayne demanded.

"Why would she want to know that...?" Heero wondered.

"The pilot's name is Quatre Winner." 

"Winner? I never thought a pacifist would...I guess you never know what people can turn out to be like," Rayne mused. Shaking her head, she asked, "And where is he now?"

"I don't know," Heero said truthfully. Last he knew, Quatre had been in the former Sank Kingdom. But who knows where he was now?

"Do you have an idea of where he could be?" Rayne asked. Heero sighed, feeling like he was betraying the colonies by giving out such information. But to keep the colonies safe, he couldn't be discovered. And that meant getting the disk, which meant that he had to tell this girl.

"The former Sank Kingdom," Heero said at last. Rayne smiled, throwing the disk to him.

"You know, there's really no reason not to trust a fellow pilot," she advised. "Unless they work for Romafellar."

"What do you know about Romafellar?" Heero demanded. Rayne laughed and put her hand in her pocket.

"I know that they're the main enemy of the Gundam pilots, which means that they're my enemy too." Without a thank-you or a good-bye, or even telling Heero who she was, Rayne turned and left Heero standing to wonder...

__

"Who is this girl, anyways?"

****

Chapter 3: A Delay in Plans

"I can't go by air. The Riverdown's not equipped to fly. I don't even know how far it would be to drive, and if it takes a while then I could lose the pilot," Rayne thought, turning over ideas in her head. Then she reminded herself, "Quatre. His name's Quatre." Finally coming to a conclusion, she pulled out a road map. Then she cursed herself for not asking first... "Would the former Sank Kingdom be on a road map? An old one, maybe..." 

Most likely, it would. But maybe... Rayne, determined to find the Wing Zero _and_ its pilot, searched the map. 

After a while of looking closely at the large-scale map, she found it. It was barely mentioned, but it was there. "Ah, so the boundaries of the former Sank Kingdom aren't too far from here. I just hope I can get there before he's gone..."

~*~

Rayne stopped to pick up fuel for the truck and the Gundam, some food, and plenty of caffinated drinks. It wouldn't take as long as she expected, but her trip would take a good few days.

"Thank you," she said to the person she was buying from. He looked at her truck.

"Holy mother of- what you got under there, girl?" he asked. Rayne sighed as she walked to the truck that carried Riverdown in its bed. _"Why does everyone want to know?"_

"That's really none of your business, sir." She got into the truck and sped away. The man watched her.

"Huh. Such a strange girl... You'd almost think she was hiding a mobile suit in that thing."

~*~

Rayne leaned over a little on the wheel. She had never known that driving so far would be so annoying. She yawned a little and pulled the truck over, into the nearby woods.

__

"This is only the first night. Maybe I should stop and get some sleep. But...will Riverdown be safe?" Slowly, Rayne got out of the truck and checked the locks on the tarp that held her Gundam to the truck bed. Who knows how they would hold up if someone was trying to break in and steal it?

Rayne climed back into the front seat, closed the door behind her, and locked it.

"I'm a light sleeper, from what people have told me. Hopefully, Riverdown will be fine." She lay her head on the passenger seat and fell asleep.

A loud rustling noise woke Rayne up. She sat up and looked out the truck window. It was still hery late. She looked at the glowing green numbers on the dashboard clock. It was a few minutes after midnight.

Rayne looked at the Riverdown. She could see dark figures walking on it...or maybe it was her imagination. _"There's no moon out tonight...I could be seeing shadows. Of course, what better night to steal a mobile suit?"_ Rayne unlocked the truck door and opened it, stepping out into the cool night air. She shivered and put on her jacket. Cautiously, she walked to the Riverdown and to the shadows that moved around on top of it.

Her hand rested at her side, by the gun she had in her jacket's pocket. She fought the urge to yell at them to freeze. She stood and watched in silence. Suddenly, she felt a hand over her mouth.

"Don't move," a deep, raspy voice hissed. Rayne's eyes went wide as the man took her gun from her pocket and pointed it at her head. "I'll kill you if you do." Rayne tried to wrestle herself out of his grasp, but he could have easily been twice her weight and size. The strange man who had grabbed and silenced her dragged her to a van, and threw her in the back. He closed the door.

"You won't get away with this! I'll kill you! Let me out! I mean it, open the fucking door!" Rayne pounded on the door with both fists as hard as she could, but it would do no good. She leaned back and started kicking it, again to no avail. After about ten minutes of protest, she finally gave up. The driver's door of the van opened, and she looked to see who was there. But all she could make out was his outline.

"Heh heh. It's a good thing you left the keys in your truck, lady." Rayne mentally kicked herself. 

__

"How could I be so stupid?!" she demanded silently. "Where are you taking me?" she then asked.

"You and your mobile suit are coming with us." Rayne silently gritted her teeth, an event which had become habit for her.

"I _hate_ indirect answers," she muttered under her breath. "Where are we going?" She recieved no answer. With an aggrivated cry, she kicked the back door of the van as it got moving.

~*~

"One of the Gundam pilots has been captured." Quatre Winner looked at the small, battery-powered radio that was giving the news in alarm.

"One of the pilots was captured? Who?" he wondered.

"Again, one of the terroristic Gundam pilots and her Gundam have been captured and are being held..." Quatre only listened halfway, wondering who the pilot could be,

__

"'Her'? Does that mean there's another pilot? Maybe I should check it out..."

~*~

Rayne looked down at the handcuffs on her wrists and sighed. Where had they taken her? All she had seen was the back of the van, and then dark. But they hadn't knocked her out, so she knew they weren't scared of her. _"Maybe I should have attacked them,"_ she thought ruefully. _"So how am I going to get out of this?"_ She knew that she was in some kind of cell. They were holding her captive.

She thought over her options very carefully, thought of all the things that could possibly happen to her. Then she realized that there was only one thing she could do. She could only wait.

Rayne took the time in her cell to recollect the events that had occurred in the past. And she began to really ponder over some things. _"First, if I recall, the former Alliance was the enemy. Then, the former OZ. Now, the enemy is Romafellar. Or is it White Fang?"_ she wondered.

__

"But maybe...maybe the Gundams are the enemy. They've caused problems in the past, and those problems have often escalated into chaos. All of the powers want control over them. White Fang thinks they're working with Romafellar, and Romafellar thinks they're working with White Fang. So...is it them -us- who are really the problem?" She sighed. So many confusing details to consider...but only one real question.

"Who is the enemy?"

~*~

"First, I'm gonna get out of here. Then, I'll find the Wing Zero pilot and...but where will I go from there? I have no permanent home." Rayne amused herself with these thoughts of escape. _"I _do_ have Riverdown...but no mission. No real reason to team up with the Gundam pilots. So what will I do?"_

Several hours, at least, had passed since she had been brought into the room. What would they do, kill her? Most likely. And then they'll use the Gundam...whoever 'they' were, they'd use it against their opposition. With the Riverdown, and the new Virgo mobile dolls...any opposition would have a hard time retaliating.

Rayne's head snapped up as she heard a faraway crash. _"What's going on?"_ she wondered. She stood up and walked towards a small window in the door, providing just enough light for her to see. People were running around as if the base were under attack. Rayne's eyes lit up. Maybe it was.

She continued to stare out the window, watching frantic people heading for the mobile suit hangar. Then she realized... _"Whoever's captured us...they'll use the Riverdown!"_

"Damn!" she cursed. She looked down at her handcuffs and struggled with them for a moment. After a few minutes, they opened and dropped to the floor. Rayne rubber her sore wrists and looked back at the window. _"These are definately Romafellar troops," _she noted. _"They're too organized to befrom the White Fang."_ She saw someone wearing civilian clothing running down the hall. _"Maybe he's one of the ones attacking!"_ she hoped. She began to bang on the window, shouting at the young man.

"Hey!" she yelled. "Let me out of here!" The young man stopped and looked at her. "Please!" He nodded and disappeared from her sight for a minute before the door opened. "Thanks," Rayne told him.

"Are you the Gundam pilot?" he asked.

"How...what did you hear about me?" Rayne demanded.

"It was on the radio," he answered. Rayne looked around, seeing soldiers running towards the mobile suit hangar.

"Come on," she said to the young man. "We have to get to the Gundam before they do!" _"All of these bases are built the same," _she noted as she ran towards the hangar.

The two got to the hangar in time to see the Virgo mobile dolls being deployed. Rayne looked around and saw her truck. They hadn't even _touched_ the Gundam! She ran towards it and opened the locks on the tarp over it. Pulling the tarp off, she entered the mobile suit and switched the controls on. Then she noticed that the young man that had let her go was gone.

"Okay Riverdown," she muttered. "Let's get those bastards." Then she began to attack with the beam cannon, with a prayer that this wouldn't be her last battle.

"I hate fighting at bases," Rayne said. "They _always_ have reinforcements!" She saw something in the distance...another mobile suit. But not just any mobile suit, it was a Gundam. The Gundam Sandrock, to be precise.

"Hey," the pilot, Quatre, said. "I'm here to help." Rayne breathed a sigh of relied.

"Thanks, I think I could use it." The two Gundams began to fight the troops of mobile dolls that were just arriving to attack them, in hopes that they could win this battle.

~*~

The mobile doll troops weren't letting up at all. Both Gundam pilots were trying as best they could to make the troops back down, but it wasn't working.

"Damn," Rayne remarked. "They're not letting up at all!" 

"Hey," a familiar voice said. "You guys need any help?"

"Duo?!" Rayne cried, noticing the familiar shape of the Deathscythe Gundam in the distance..

"You got it," Duo said. The Deathscythe landed on the ground near the Riverdown Gundam. "I didn't miss the party, did I?"

"There's plenty of action left," Rayne told him.

"Hey, Duo!" Quatre called from the Sandrock.

"Quatre! Long time no see!" 

__

"What? Quatre...Winner?" Rayne wondered. She opened her mouth to speak but found herself dodging the beam cannon of a Virgo mobile doll instead. She would get to him later. If there _was_ a later.

~*~

"Hah hah!" Duo shouted. "There's no escaping from the God of Death!" Rayne almost laughed at his enthusiasm.

"We've almost got 'em!" she told the other pilots.

"So we can finish them off in time for lunch," Duo said.

"Sure, Duo," Quatre laughed. 

Rayne threw the Riverdown's beam cannon away and pulled out a beam saber.

"Alright, _this_ is more like it!" She sliced through some of the remaining mobile dolls as Duo and Quatre kept attacking. Slowly, the mobile dolls began to retreat and the three pilots cheered in celebration. Rayne stepped out of her Gundam. Quatre and Duo did the same.

__

"Quatre," Rayne thought, "I think you're the one I've been looking for..."

****

Chapter 4: The Zero Disaster

The three Gundam pilots stood in silence in front of their mobile suits, looking at one another nervously. Rayne cleared her throat and spoke up.

"So...um, my name's Rayne. Rayne Cetauri." She extended her hand to Quatre, who shook it.

"I'm Quatre Raberba Winner," he replied. "Nice to meet you, Rayne."

"Yeah, same," she told him. "Thanks for helping me back there." Duo cleared his throat.

"I didn't come out here for nothin', you know," he said matter-of-factly.

"I know," Rayne retorted. "I was just getting to the part where I thank you for showing up." She grinned. Duo looked at his watch.

"Well, if we're done here then I gotta go," he said, and walked away.

After he was gone, Rayne looked at Quatre.

"Hey," she told him. "I have to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"Have you ever piloted a mobile suit called Wing Zero?" Rayne asked.

"Yeah...I did. For a little while." 

"Um...did you pilot it in outer space? The Gundam?" Quatre nodded silently.

"I think...I think that you're the one I've been looking for, but I'm not really sure. I mean, you seem like a nice person. And you helped me escape..." Rayne looked at the ground in concentration.

"Why are you looking for me? Or whoever you want to find?" he asked her. She sighed.

"It's a long story...well, maybe not that long. I'll start from the beginning."

~*~

__

The colony was generally peaceful. In fact, more quiet than usual. More people were out than normal. These people included a small family: mother, father, young daughter. They walked down the street, the young child holding the hand of both her mother and father. She had shoulder-length brown hair and violet eyes that captured the innocense of childhood.

"Papa, papa!" she called, jumping up and down in the way only a four-year-old could. Her father looked down at her and smiled.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Papa, I want to be a driver, like you!" Her father laughed, and his wife laughed along with him.

"You must mean a pilot," her mother corrected.

"Yep, that's it!" the carefree girl said, laughing.

"You can be whatever you can dream," her father said.

"Rayne, why don't you go over and decide where we're having lunch?" the girl's mother suggested.

"Okay mother!" And the young child skipped away.

"Alan," the mother said. "You're not going to seriously let her be a pilot?"

"Why not, Lania?" the father, Alan, wondered. 

"She could be seriously hurt!" Lania exclaimed. "I'm already in danger of losing you after each battle, I don't want her to suffer the same fate!"

"You know how good I am with a mobile suit," Alan said to his wife. "I'll train her myself."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Alan smiled and replied, "Hey, you know me." He winked and went to retrieve his daughter, who had only wandered a few feet. She had heard everything.

~*~

"I've always wanted to pilot a mobile suit, just like my father. Alan Cetauri, one of the greatest pilots in the colony." Rayne laughed sadly. Then she looked at Quatre apologetically. "Sorry. I got a little off track, I guess. Anyways..."

~*~

__

The colonies were never safe. Everyone seemed to want control over them. And lately, battles had been breaking out everywhere. The five mobile suits known as Gundams had returned into space. Everyone had heard it on the news. One of their greatest fans was Rayne Cetauri. She had heard of their young age, and was fascinated by the mobile suits themselves. 

Her father was building a new mobile suit out of the same material as the Gundams: gundanium alloy. Rayne hoped that with practice, she would some day be able to use the mobile suit.

Much to Rayne's surprise, the people had detested the Gundams. She wondered what they would think of her father building one. If her family wasn't so respected in the colony, they may have been outcast. 

Rayne could feel something wrong the day of the disaster, even before the news hit the radio stations, before it got to the news channels. And certainly before an announcement was given to evacuate the entire colony. Long before.

They recieved word of a rampaging Gundam and its pilot, who were focused only on destroying the colonies. Rayne had always thought that the colonies were the biggest interest of the Gundams, not their enemy. Or were they, as the OZ officials had proclaimed, the true enemy?

Her father had signed up with OZ as a defending soldier of the colony. And even before the evacuation order was given, he was piloting a mobile suit, waiting for this new Gundam, code named 'Wing Zero', to show. He would give the Gundam pilot a fight worth remembering.

Rayne never knew what happened outside the protective walls of the colony. All she knew was a blaring siren and police trying to get people out of their homes, and to safety. But usually concerned with the future, Rayne retaliated against the police and ran to where her father's 75 % complete Gundam was being held. 

She retrieved the unnamed mobile suit and then went to see that her mother had made it safely away from the colony. She found her standing on the sidewalk in front of her home.

"Mother!" she yelled from the cockpit of the Gundam. "Come on, you have to get out of here!" But her mother shook her head.

"I trust your father. He and the rest of the soldiers will turn the Gundam away. Or at least talk some sense into the pilot. The colony will be safe."

"But...mother-"

"If you want to leave, then go. When your father returns, he will come find you. For now...I love you, my little Rayne-storm." Rayne smiled as her mother called her by her nickname.

"I love you too, mother. Tell papa that I love him too, when you see him again." Rayne's mother waved good-bye as she left the colony.

Rayne had done it, she had left the colony. The only home she had ever known. She saw the sihlouette of the Earth against the dark, star-covered blackness of space. And nearer than that, the lights of beam cannons in a battle. They were strangely beautiful...

Rayne caught her first glimpse of the Wing Zero then, as it blasted through suit after suit. 

"Oh God," was all that she could choke out of her throat as she watched the battle. Which mobile suit was her father's?

"Rayne!" a voice cried through the communication system. 

"Papa!" Rayne yelped happily.

"Rayne, get out of here...now! Take the Gundam with you, just go!"

"But papa-"

"I mean it, Rayne! If you don't get out of here, you could be killed!" Rayne bit her lip and forced back tears.

"I- I understand, papa," she said weakly.

"Good. And Rayne? Take care of yourself. I love you." The beam cannon of the Wing Zero blasted through the final three mobile suits and she heard them cry out in anguish and defeat.

"Papa...no! NO!" Then the Wing Zero took aim again, at the colony. With one devastatingly powerful shot, it was gone. "NO!" Rayne yelled. Her father... mother... everything she ever knew had been destroyed in a single day. In the cockpit of the Gundam, for the first time that she could remember, she cried.

~*~

"Now you see," Rayne said after explaining her story. Slowly, she wiped a previously undetected tear away from the corner of her eye. Quatre nodded sullenly.

"I...I'm sorry," he said. "I know it doesn't help, and it doesn't fix anything, but I'm sorry."

"So it _was_ you." Rayne laughed sadly. "At first, I thought it was the other pilot, the one who calls himself Heero."

"I'm pretty sure that he has the Wing Zero now," Quatre explained.

"I just have to know...what could persuade a pilot who was fighting _for_ the colonies to destroy them?" Rayne asked.

"There's a system in the Wing Zero, called the Zero System. It -in a way- warps the pilot's mind, to create the perfect pilot, I guess. It had serious side effects."

"I can understand that." Rayne paused a moment, trying to think of how she would say what she planned to do. _"Do I even have to tell him...? He probably didn't want to do anything to any of the colonies at first. But I should tell him,"_ she mused. "Y'know, when I first got here, I guess I was acting a little stupid. But here's what happened."

~*~

__

Rayne was weak. She sighed and leaned on one of the controls, having no fear of it turning itself on. The Gundam was out of fuel.

"I should have gotten some fuel before I left...but how was I supposed to know that I would take this thing out here?" she thought. Her stomach growled, the simple pain from her hunger making her dizzy. How long had she been without food, two days? Yes...two days had passed since the fateful encounter with the Wing Zero Gundam.

The Earth had become bigger in Rayne's opinion. She was still floating towards it, in the silent lack of gravity she had maintained her course. 

Finally, from hunger and exhaustion, Rayne passed out.

She didn't feel the turbulence of entering the atmosphere, nor did she feel the Gundam's landing on Earth. But when she awoke, she was on the ground right by her father's Gundam.

"What...where am I?" Rayne wondered. She was barely able to whisper the words, her throat was dry from lack of water. She felt the slightly muddy soil under her hands and looked around. "There's got to be water here," she said. Then she saw it: a clear blue stream, flowing not even five feet away from where she was. She weakly crawled towards it, cupped some in her hands, and drank it down.

Taking a deep breath, she looked at the blue sky overhead and laughed. She had made it to the Earth! Lying on her back, she stared at the clouds and closed her eyes, feeling like she was too weak to open them again.

Rayne didn't know what happened when she was asleep, but when she next opened her eyes she was in a small room. She almost leaped out of bed when a strong hand grabbed her wrist.

"Don't move." Rayne looked at the man. "You're not strong enough. It's lucky we found you, or you might have been in serious trouble." The man laughed, a deep, warm laugh. "By the way, what's a young person like you doing with a mobile suit?"

"Where is it?" Rayne demanded.

"Relax, kid. It's in the mobile suit hangar. Y'know, I could be in serious trouble for even having that here. It is, after all, a Gundam." Rayne nodded.

"Yeah...that's right, it is."

"What's your name, kid?"

"Rayne."

"Well then, Rayne, you're a strong girl." The man smiled at her. "To make it here from outer space with no fuel..." How had he known?

"Well, the space suit was a dead giveaway," Rayne thought to herself.

"You rest," the man told her. "We'll work on your Gundam in the meantime."

"Sir?" Rayne said. "Why are you helping me?"

"You remind me of my own daughter. She passed away several yars ago." Rayne smiled.

"Thank you," she told him. He left the room and she remembered... "I have to name the Gundam." She thought over the subject for a while and decided to call it Riverdown, because it landed by a river. She spoke the name once or twice and smiled. "Riverdown. I like it."

She thought of what she would do if she ever saw the Wing Zero again. Fighting it with the Riverdown could very well mean suicide for her. That Gundam was more powerful than it seemed. 

"Maybe I'll just kill the pilot," she considered, then shook her head. "On second thought, murder can only make a tragedy worse." She thought for a while, and decided that she would know what to do when -if- she actually met the pilot.

~*~

"Sounds rough," Quatre said. 

"It was. That was about a week ago. But...it feels like much longer."

"Things like that always do." Quatre paused for a moment. "So you said you'd know what to do when you found the pilot. What are you going to do?" Rayne laughed.

"It sounds crazy, but I'm going to ask to join you."

**__**

Chapter 5: Allies and Enemies

"What do you mean, 'join me'?" Quatre asked.

"You're fighting against Romafellar, right?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

"I want to help you. Maybe we can rally the pilots. We'd be a stronger fighting force if all of us were together."

"I don't know about that, Rayne. Heero probably wouldn't agree. And who _knows_ about Duo."

"There were five of you, right? What about the other two pilots?" Rayne suggested. "Would _they_ help us?"

"I don't know. From what Duo's told me...Trowa's not a Gundam pilot any more," Quatre explained. 

"Why not?"

"He doesn't remember."

"Doesn't remember what?"

"Anything." Rayne was silent for a minute.

"Was he your friend?" she then asked. Quatre laughed.

"I don't think any of us are friends, by those standards. If you can understand that. Mostly -and I think I speak for all of the Gundam pilots- we keep to ourselves." Quatre added as an afterthought, "But Trowa was _kind of _my friend."

"Oh," Rayne muttered. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It might be better for him not to remember."

__

"How can he think that?" Rayne wondered. _"These Gundams are...they're fantastic! If anyone was to ever have the ability to fly one, then they would surely love it."_ She sighed.

"You _did_ bring up a point," Quatre said. "We'd be a lot stronger if we all fought together."

"But no one else really feels that way. You said that Heero works mainly by himself. And, again, Duo's unpredictable. He might like to help out, but he might not. And the other pilots...I mean, pilot. We don't know, do we?"

"That seems to be the way things always go. Once something starts to work out, everything goes crazy again," Quatre pointed out.

"I know the feeling," Rayne agreed with a sigh. "That's just the way life is, I guess." She paused and thought for a moment. "But...even if all of us pilots don't decide to work together...it's worth a shot, right?" She looked at Quatre and grinned.

"We can give it a try, sure. I just hope they'd want to cooperate."

"From the way we're putting this into words, we sound like we're going to kidnap them." Rayne laughed. Quatre thought about the words they had chosen and laughed with her.

The moment was short-lived, though. From inside Quatre's Sandrock Gundam, something turned on. He looked at it.

"What is it?" Rayne asked.

"It's a news broadcast. Here." An image appeared on the small monitor inside the cockpit of the Riverdown. Rayne looked closely at it. "See?"

"Yeah...where _is_ this?"

"A seaside space port. Romafellar and White Fang are fighting for control over it."

"Must be pretty important."

"Apparently."

"Should we go check it out? This would be the perfect opportunity to get the four of us together."

"And maybe Duo or Heero has some information on the other pilot."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Rayne wondered. "Let's go!"

~*~

Duo listened to the news about a battle taking place at a large space port as if he intended on showing up.

__

"Romafellar versus White Fang. Can someone remind me here...who's the bad guy? Well, I guess the obvious answer would be Romafellar. We've been fighting against them -and OZ- all along. But...well, White Fang did get the crazy idea to eliminate the Earth..." He stood up and laughed. "Guess I'll just see who I'm fighting against when I get there."

~*~

"Are you sure he'll be here?"

"Pretty much. Unless he already took off. That's possible. He could have heard about this long before we did."

"I hope he's still there." A mobile suit carrier circled the sky in search of one person in particular. Suddenly, it shook. "Rayne, could you try and hold us still?"

"Sorry. I'm not exactly the world's best pilot. Say, if you're so good with these planes, why don't _you_ take it, Quatre?"

"Maybe that would be a good idea." The carrier landed in a clearing just beside a small town. Both Rayne and Quatre stepped out and looked around.

"Yeah," Rayne said. "This is where I saw him." They saw something fly over their heads. It looked like a small plane.

"That's him!" Quatre yelled. "And the Wing Zero!"

"Well then, I guess we came all the way out here for nothing," Rayne muttered, then she followed Quatre back into the plane and it took off after the Wing Zero. 

~*~

A battle raged not even 100 meters below the mobile suit carrier as two suits dropped from it. Both were Gundams, they were the Sandrock and the Riverdown. Already one Gundam was there, the Deathscythe.

"Hey!" Rayne called to its pilot. "Funny how we keep meeting like this, huh?"

"Yeah!" Duo agreed. "I thought you two would show."

"And Heero should be here any minute," Quatre added. No sooner had he said it than the Wing Zero came into view. 

__

"Speak of the Devil," Rayne thought silently. 

"Hey, Heero!" Duo greeted. He received no reply, as he figured. Only then did Heero notice the new Gundam.

"What the hell..." he wondered.

"Remember me?" Rayne asked him.

"You!" he hissed.

"Yeah, that's what I said. Nice meeting you too," she joked.

"Why are you here?" Heero demanded.

"The same reason as you, and the rest of these excellent pilots. I'm here to fight." The Riverdown drew its beam saber and began to charge into the battle.

"Hold on!" Quatre said. "Do we even know which side we're on?" None of the pilots answered. "I didn't think so. Before we go and lose our heads, we need to figure that out."

"Good point. Who's fighting for what?" Duo wondered.

"The way I see it, OZ and Romafellar are trying to make peace between the Earth and the colonies. But the White Fang's just trying to start a war between Earth and the colonies," Heero said.

"So is Romafellar doing the right thing this time?" Rayne asked.

"On the other hand," Duo objected, "The White Fang is fighting for the colonies, same as us."

"But they want to blow up the Earth!" Quatre pointed out.

"In my opinion, they're the bad guy here," Rayne said.

"That's what it looks like," Quatre agreed.

"But if any of their soldiers get in our way..." Duo trailed off.

"We'll eliminate them," Heero finished. Rayne gasped sarcastically.

"Is this actually turning out to be a _plan_? Are we...working together? Well, I guess you could call it a miracle!" she joked.

"Hey," Duo laughed, "Stranger things have happened."

"Oh yeah? Name one," Rayne commanded.

"Well...uh...I can't think of one right _now_."

"Are you two done?" Quatre asked tiredly.

"We'll finish this later," Rayne said to Duo.

"You're on." Duo paused. "Alright, let's do this!"

~*~

"Four mobile suits approaching."

"What? Only four?"

"It...it's the Gundams!"

"Which ones?"

"02, 04, Wing Zero, and a new one!"

"So the White Fang wants to play tough? That's it, send out-"

"We're receiving a message from the Gundams!"

"Attention!" Rayne's voice came in clearly and her face appeared on screen. "I am speaking on behalf of the Gundam pilots. Do _not_ attack us. This time, and only this time, we're working with you. In this circumstance, you're the lesser of two evils. I repeat, don't attack the Gundams." The previously silent room began to fill with the sound of whispers.

"You heard her!" the commander shouted. "Don't set the Gundams as a target for the mobile dolls! Now, send out the first troops!"

~*~

"No doubt Zechs will show up in the Epyon," Heero said.

"I kind of figured he would," Duo agreed. "But for now, let's just worry 'bout what's going on here."

"Right," Rayne added. Again, she charged into the battle, and the other three Gundams followed.

~*~

The beam saber of the Riverdown sliced through mobile suit after mobile suit, hardly pausing a moment between thrusts and slashes. Rayne worked away from the others, trying desperately not to hurt them in her rampage against the White Fang.

Heero was silent throughout most of the battle. His expression was unchanging as he went from enemy to enemy, and fulfilled his promise to Romafellar and OZ by attacking even their mobile suits if they got in his way. After the first few times, the OZ mobile suits decided to stay away from the Gundams.

~*~

"If we could just take over the base..." a soldier said from within the White Fang troops.

"We could fire the main cannon at the Gundams. Kill two birds with one stone," another replied.

"That's it! We're taking over that base!"

~*~

"What the..." Duo trailed off as the White Fang troops began to move away. The Gundam pilots looked at the retreating troops in cunfusion.

"What are they doing?" Quatre asked.

"Looks like they're retreating," Heero said.

"But...why?" Rayne wondered. They all stopped attacking and watched the troops turn away.

"Wait a minute," Heero muttered.

"They...they're heading for the base!" Rayne shouted. "We can't let them take over it!" It was too late: the few minutes that the pilots had wasted allowed the White Fang troops to attack the base. Soon, but not without a fight, the base was under the White Fang's control.

__

"This sucks," Rayne said to herself. "Well, it looks like we're going to have to destroy the base now."

"Hold on!" Quatre ordered.

"What? Why?" Rayne asked him. Slowly, the main cannon of the base began to move.

"Are they..." Duo wondered. The huge cannon began to gain power as it quickly charged up. It would be hard to escape.

"Yeah, they are," Heero said.

"Everyone out of the way!" Quatre yelled. The Sandrock, Wing Zero, and Riverdown all moved out of the line of the cannon. Duo, who was right in the middle of the line of fire, turned the Deathscythe and moved out of the way.

Suddenly, unaware to Duo, the cannon moved. He was again in its range. 

"Damnit! Duo, move!" Rayne yelled. The base's cannon fired.

In an act of desperation, the Riverdown charged towards Duo and the Deathscythe, pushing the Gundam out of the way. Instead, it was hit by the devastating blast. For Rayne, time seemed to stop completely. Energy crackled around the main cannon as it powered down.

"Rayne!" Duo shouted. From inside the damaged Riverdown, Rayne laughed.

"No prob, Duo. You owe me one," she said.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" Duo demanded.

"Hey," Rayne said, "What're friends for?" And then, the Riverdown exploded into flames. Duo shouted every foul word he could think of, while Quatre looked at the wreckage to see if Rayne could have survived, if at all possible. Heero's stony facial expression remained unchanged, even as the Wing Zero, and the other two Gundams, were showered by debris from their fallen friend's mobile suit.

**__**

Chapter 6: I Will Remember

Duo growled as he gripped the controls of the Deathscythe.

"You're gonna PAY for hurting my friend!" He began to attack the White Fang troops that charged towards him with his beam scythe. _"We have to destroy them, Deathscythe. There's no way the God of Death is letting them get away with this!"_

It was truly an impossible battle. Three Gundams and a handful of leftover OZ mobile suits against the White Fang and a cannon capable of destroying a Gundam. Nonetheless, the pilots did their best to keep their ground. 

__

"We're not going to win this one," Quatre said. "We had a chance, until they took control of the base." 

Before the Gundam pilots realized it, they were sorely outnumbered. The OZ troops had been completely destroyed. Now the only enemy left for White Fang was the Gundams...and they would be easily defeated.

"They're gonna fire the main cannon again!" Quatre shouted through the com-link system.

"Damn!" Duo hissed. The huge cannon was moving towards the three Gundams.

"Spread out," Heero said, his voice sounding completely calm. The mobile suits separated from each other and continued to fight, each of the three pilots keeping an eye on the cannon. Quatre noticed its objective first.

"Heero! Get out of the way!" The cannon had powered up, and was preparing to fire. The Wing Zero did nothing. "Heero, you're going to get killed!" The cannon fired, and Heero jumped out of the way. Quatre breathed a sigh of relief. _"That's too close,"_ he thought. 

"We're definately outnumbered," Duo said to the other two pilots.

"Maybe we should back off for now," Quatre suggested.

"Well, Heero? You ready to give up?" Heero didn't say anything. "We can't give up now. But...we're outnumbered, and we can't make any difference if we're dead."

"Well?"

"Okay. Let's go," he said reluctantly. _"I'm not running away."_

~*~

It was a quiet day. A dark, rainy day when no one felt like doing anything at all except sitting and staring out the window at the rain falling down the glass. One young boy was out walking by the ocean in this weather, when the tide was higher and more violent than usual. When the winds blew much fiercer, tousling his hair black and attacking his jacket.

The boy tramped across the wet sand looking at the ocean, and the clouds that hovered above it. He sighed out of boredom and scanned the water close to the edge. In the distance he saw something floating, and started running towards it.

"What...what _is_ that thing?" he asked himself. It was almost a perfect box, bigger than himself, and a dark shade of black. One corner of it had begun to rust. It was metal, and badly scorched in some places.

He began to examine it from the beach when his left heel hit something. He looked down at the obstruction and gasped...it was a person! He leaned down and looked at him. He was face-down in the wet sand. His breathing was shallow, but at least he was still alive. The boy turned the person over.

"Oh, God..." he looked at the person's face with wide eyes. He remembered this person. Then he sighed and stood up. He carried the person away from the beach and to safety.

~*~

She sat up in bed and took a deep, shaky breath.

__

"Was it a dream?" she wondered silently. Her parents were by her side.

"It...was it all just...a dream?" she asked aloud. Her mother laughed.

"A nightmare," she answered to her daughter's question. 

"But now its over, and you're back with us, Rayne," her father added. "Safe and sound."

"So...everything was a dream?" Rayne asked again.

"Yes, of course. Why?" Rayne laughed.

"It was crazy," she said. "I dreamed that you were dead." Her father laughed.

"Well, we're not. We're safe, and you're safe."

"And that's how it's going to stay," Rayne's mother agreed. Suddenly, Rayne heard a loud bang as an explosion ripped through the room. She felt the burning hot flames on her face and...

She opened her eyes. Still in bed, she breathed raggedly until she calmed down and looked around. She was in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room. Someone stood up in the corner from his seat in a chair.

"Good," he said, "I'm glad you're finally up." He turned on a light. Rayne looked away for a moment until her eyes adjusted to it and then looked back. "How are you feeling?" He looked at her with friendly eyes and smiled.

"Who...what...who are you? Where are we?" she asked. "And...who am I?"

"You...don't you remember?" the boy asked. Rayne shook her head. "Oh, Rayne...what happened to you?"

"Rayne?" She blinked in surprise. "Is that my name?" Then, slowly, she began to sit up, and felt a sharp pain in her ribs.

"Don't," the boy warned. "You're not strong enough." Rayne nodded in agreement.

"So...who are you?"

"You really don't remember me, do you Rayne? I was...we were friends, in the colonies. Then, the...I...your family left for the Earth. And that's the last I saw of you...until now."

"Really?" Rayne asked.

"Yeah."

"What's your name?"

"Max. Max Kine."

"And..." Rayne paused. "Do you know my last name?"

"Yeah," Max said. "It's Cetauri." He started to leave. "I'll get you something to eat.

"Max!" Rayne said. 

"Yeah?"

"I...um, well..." Max smiled.

"You're welcome. Get some rest." Confused and weakened by pain, Rayne closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

~*~

A few days later, Rayne was out of bed. She wandered around the house where she had been a guest until she found the kitchen. She also found Max sitting at a chair eating a bag of chips. He smiled at her.

"Glad to see that you're up," he said.

"Yeah," Rayne agreed quietly. She sat down across from him and leaned on her hand.

"Are you hungry?" Max asked.

"Not really," Rayne said. She looked down at the bandage on her wrist, and brought her hand up to her head, feeling another bandage around her forehead. 

"Anything you want to do?"

"Um...I can't think of anything."

"Sorry," Max apologized. "Dumb question. But it's a great day outside. We should go somewhere." Rayne nodded in agreement.

"I'd like to get to know this place."

"It's a lot like the colony where we grew up," Max told her.

"Really? I wish I knew more about 'the colony where we grew up'." She laughed.

"Well, should we go?" Rayne looked down at the tattered clothes that she was wearing.

"Sure, after I get some decent clothes."

~*~

The city Max lived in was made up mostly of people who didn't feel welcome anywhere else. Many were merchants, laborers, or middle-class workers. Some of the people were from the colonies, people who didn't care for the artificial support that outer space and the colonies provided.

Max led Rayne down the busy main street where the marketplace was. Rayne looked around her at all of the people and stores.

"What do you think so far?" Max asked.

"Oh, I...I'm not sure," Rayne said. Max grinned and took her arm.

"C'mon, there's plenty more to see." 

When they returned to Max's home, Rayne was laughing.

"Had enough excitement for one day?" Max asked. 

"That was fun!" Rayne exclaimed as she laughed. Suddenly, she became quiet.

"You should get some rest," Max said after a long silence.

"I'm okay," Rayne responded. Without warning, she put her hands over her head as an almost unbearable pain traveled from her head through her whole body. And then, it was gone.

"Rayne! Are you alright?" Max ran to her side as she sat on the floor. A silent tear slid down her cheek. Max put his arms around her and sighed. _"What's happened to you...?"_

****

Chapter 7: Visions of Death

Rayne sighed and looked out the window. The sun was just beginning to rise over the east window of the kitchen. Max quietly walked in, saw that Rayne was thinking, and sat down without a sound. After a few minutes, Rayne noticed that he was there.

"Oh, hey," she said.

"I, ah, didn't want to disturb you-" Max told her. He understood that she was having a tough time adjusting to her situation, probably better that she did.

"No, it's okay." They sat for a long time in an uncomfortable silence. "Should I tell him about it? I mean, it's not his problem, it's mine. But I shouldn't keep secrets to the one person who cared enough to save my life. Of course, I don't even know what this means yet...I"ll wait," Rayne thought, looking back at the rising sun.

"Everything's okay, right?" Max asked, breaking the silence of the kitchen. Rayne smiled slightly and looked at him.

"Fine," she replied. "It's just...this feels so...familiar."

"Oh."

"Max? I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"Um...do you know where my parents are?" Max sighed. He knew that the question would come up...he just hoped that it wouldn't be so soon. _"How can I tell her?"_ he wondered. _"Maybe...maybe I shouldn't."_

"Rayne, I'm sorry, but I don't know. I wish I did, but I don't."

"Oh." Rayne thought for a minute. "Well...where are _your_ parents? Mabe they knew mine."

"My dad has been out of town on a business trip. My mother died a long time ago. I have a feeling that they might know, but my dad will be gone for a long time."

"What kind of business trip did he go on?"

"He's been investigating the Gundams. I don't know how long he'll be gone for."

"Gundams...what are they?" Rayne asked.

"You...you really don't know?" Rayne shook her head. "The Gundams are mobile suits. There are five of them. Six, counting the one that was destroyed about a week and a half ago. But only three have been active lately as a group. These mobile suits are stronger than the ones from OZ. They're made from gundanuim alloy. But the real reason they're such a threat to OZ is the pilots."

"Why the pilots?" Rayne wondered.

"The Gundams are really powerful. It takes a skilled pilot to use the power as well as it can be used. The pilots are, for the most part, merciless. But soldiers some times see compassion in them...if they're lucky," Max explained. 

"Gundam...why is that so familiar?"

"So you _have_ heard of them."

"But...never mind."

"Rayne, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rayne whispered. "Just a little...preoccupied, I guess."

"Preoccupied," Max repeated with a laugh. "Look, I have to get some food for our dinner tonight. You want to come, maybe get your mind off some stuff?" Rayne smiled.

"I'd like that."

~*~

Max carried a bag in his left hand and had Rayne's hand in his right. They walked as if they were a couple, with Rayne leaning lighty on his shoulder.

"What do you want to do now?" he asked. Rayne shrugged.

"How about we keep doing this?"

"You mean walking without exactly getting anywhere on purpose?" Rayne nodded. "Sounds like a plan to me."

~*~

Heero sighed as he walked down the sidewalk, as he had so often done before. He hid his hands in his pockets and gave everyone he passed a stony glare. But something didn't feel right...

He looked at the buildings to either side of him, at the people who laughed and talked to each other as they walked. Through the commotion of the busy afternoon, one voice struck him as familiar.

Turning towards the sound, Heero couldn't find its source. Then...there she was. The person who he had once fought alongside of...acting as if nothing ever happened. 

She walked along, her hand clasped wth another's. Heero couldn't clearly see his face, and he didn't really care. 

__

"She belongs here," Heero thought. _"Just walk away."_ And he did.

Rayne laughed as she talked to Max. He always brought out her laughter, no matter how bad her day was. She surveyed the familiar street as if again for the first time, then looked to her left wrist, which was still bandaged. But she couldn't remember what had caused her so much pain in the first place...

Her eyes landed on a person, and she could have sworn that she had seen him before. She stared at him long and hard as he walked away from her and Max, thinking over the places where she could have seen him.

Max gently grabbed her arm, careful of her sprained wrist, and she continued walking with him.

__

"Just another mystery left unsolved."

~*~

"I don't know about you, but I'm tired," Rayne said with a yawn. Max nodded in agreement. "So I'm going to bed."

"Okay. G'night," Max told her. She went to her room and crawled into bed, only stopping to kick off her shoes. As she closed her eyes, she waited expectantly for the dreams to come...

__

It was the same dream again. Rayne watched as it played out for her. A peaceful scene began to appear in her mind's eye. Then came the stars of the scene: a family of three. They walked hand-in-hand, smiles practically glued on their faces. The child of the family, a small girl, hopped up and down.

"Papa, papa!" she called. Her father looked down at her. "Papa, I wanna be just like you!" The father laughed.

"You can be whatever you want to be," he told her.

"Please," Rayne thought, "Let them live this time."

__

"When I grow up I wanna drive the metal people, papa!"

"You'll be able to, when you're older."

"I can't wait that long!" The young girl began to pout.

"How would you like for me to train you?" her father offered.

"Would you? Please, papa! Please!" the little girl begged.

"We'll start when we get home."

"Oh, papa! I can't wait!" Suddenly, a yellow-orange light ripped through the homes and the streets. Rayne last heard the high-pitched scream of the little girl.

Her eyes flew open, her heart beating wildly. No matter how many times she had the dream, it always left her with a terrible feeling. She left her bed and walked to the window, pushing it open to let the night air into the room._ "These dreams have to mean something,"_ she thought. _"I think I'll tell Max after all...tomorrow."_ She sighed and got back into bed.

~*~

"Max? Max, where are you?" Rayne asked. She wandered the halls of the small house, looking for her friend. "Hey, if this is some kind of joke..." She walked into the living room. A note was posted on the door.

__

"Rayne," it said. _"Gone to the post office... Be back soon. -Max"_ Rayne laughed.

"Guess I'll just have to wait."

~*~

The front door creaked open and Max stepped into the house. Rayne was waiting for him, but his attention was focused on the paper in his hand.

"Hey," Rayne said.

"Hi," Max replied, still staring at the paper. "Just got a letter from my dad."

"Did you read it yet?"

"Yeah. Usual stuff. But it has some information. I thought you might like to read this second thing." Max handed Rayne a folded sheet of paper. Inside were six small slips of paper and a letter. Rayne read the letter first.

__

"You seem so interested in those Gundams, Max, that one would believe that you are one of the pilots. Well, I've got more information about your 'tragedy'. Yes, what you've heard is true. One of the Gundams has been destroyed. The new one, 06, to be exact. And the pilot is certainly dead, or lost. Also adhearing to your request, I've sent these pictures like you asked. I hope you'll find good use of them." 

Rayne looked at the six small pieces of paper, pictures. They were of the Gundams, in order of their numbers.

"Weird looking things," she muttered.

"That's what makes them so interesting to me," Max told her. "I'm thinking if I keep this up, I could be on my way to being a mobile suit engineer." Rayne laughed.

"Sounds like a plan. I have no idea what kind of career I'm interested in...or _was_ interested in." She flipped through the pictures one by one and then stopped. The Gundam in the photo seemed a little smaller than the others. It was sky blue and white, with a beam saber at its side, aiming a beam cannon with the other.

"Something wrong?" Max asked.

"This one," Rayne told him. "I've seen it before."

"You have? Where?"

"It's been in my dreams."

"What do you mean?" Max sat down beside her.

"Ever since I met you, I've been having these weird dreams. This Gundam was in some of them. I saw it explode...from the inside. Really weird stuff," Rayne told him. Max didn't say anything for a minute. But then, it all fit together.

"I think I get it now," he muttered after a long silence.

"Get what?"

"In these dreams...you said you were _inside_ the Gundam as it exploded?" Rayne nodded. "So maybe...do you think it's possible that you're the pilot?"

"What?! Me? The pilot of a _Gundam_?! I don't think so, Max. I can't pilot anything."

"You were learning to be a pilot when we still lived in the colonies. Your father was teaching you. And...he was building a mobile suit, too. He shared some information with me because I said I wanted to build them," Max said.

"But...if I was inside, then how could I have survived?" Rayne wondered.

"It would have been a miracle," Max told her. "I guess it would mean that someone's on your side."

**__**

Chapter 8: Come With Me

Heero knocked on the shabby apartment door quietly, almost expecting for no one to be there. 

"It's open," came a voice from inside. Heero opened the door and looked around. "Hey, Heero. You're the _last_ person I'd expect to see." A light clicked on and Heero looked around. "So, why are you here?"

"I saw something that you might want to know, Duo."

"Well, what was it?" Duo asked.

Heero spoke one word, one name: "Rayne."

"Yeah...what about her?"

"I saw her," Heero explained.

"Heero, I think you've finally lost it," Duo said matter-of-factly.

"I'm serious," Heero persisted.

"Hey, you're not joking, are you?"

"No. I just _told_ you that I wasn't." Heero sighed and pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "I got an address. You might want to drop by and see her." With that, Heero left.

"Huh." Duo shrugged. "I guess there's no harm in seeing if it's true."

~*~

"Rayne!" Max ran into Rayne's room after hearing a scream. She was sitting on the floor with her hands over her head, a pained expression plastered on her face. As her face turned red, Max whispered for her to calm down. 

"I'm okay now," Rayne whispered uneasily.

"Are...are you sure? Maybe you should see someone about-"

"No!" Rayne said stubbornly. Then, after seeing the expression of confusion on her friend's face, she added, "I'm _fine_. Let's just...not talk about it, okay?"

"If you're sure. But Rayne, I'm really scared for you," Max said. Rayne smiled and gave him a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered into his ear. She pulled away from him and they stood for a minute. Max had his hands on her arms. They were a little less than a foot apart.

There was a knock on the door.

"Oh, um...someone should get the door," Rayne said. She jumped at the opportunity and walked towards the front door, pulling it open.

A young man about her age stood there. He had brown hair in a long braid and blue eyes. Rayne looked at him for a minute.

"Is there something I can do for you...?" she asked. The young man blinked in surprise.

__

"She doesn't remember?" he wondered. "Um...actually, I think I'm at the wrong house."

"Okay then." The young man left and Rayne closed the door.

"That was good. _Greeeeat_ job, Duo," he muttered to himself. "But...it's really her. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it." And he walked away, looking back at the house every so often.

~*~

"So who was that?" Max asked as Rayne closed the door. Rayne shrugged.

"I don't know. Some guy. Said he had the wrong house," she answered, then shrugged. "Funny, he looked a little familiar."

"You sure?"

"I can never be sure."

"You might want to go after him," Max said. "He may have known you before." Rayne shook her head and grinned.

"I don't care," she told him. "This is where I want to be."

~*~

Rayne leaned on Max's shoulder as she read her book. It had long since gotten dark outside.

"I can't stop thinking about that guy," she said to Max, closing her book and putting it in her lap.

"Why not?"

"I _know_ I've seen him before...but where?"

"Sorry, Rayne. I wish I could help you, but-"

"I know." Rayne smiled at her friend. "And I know that you've been trying." She yawned. "You're a great friend." Max put a hand on her shoulder as she closed her eyes for a moment.

"So are you," he whispered. Rayne didn't hear him, though. She had already fallen asleep. 

~*~

Duo paced in his apartment for a long time, nearly wearing a line in the old carpet on the floor. _"What can I do?"_ he wondered. _"She's a pilot. But she's more...my friend. If I do help her remember, she'll be dragged into all of this again. Maybe she wants to stay where she is! So should I let her live her life in peace? God, this shouldn't be so hard..."_ He sighed.

"Guess I'll do what I always do," he muttered to himself. "I'll figure it out as I go along."

~*~

"Come on, Max! Before they close!" Rayne said as she dragged Max down the street to the book store. 

"Okay, I'm coming!"

"I _told_ you that the book store always closes early on Sunday! Now let's go!" She turned around to look at her friend and ran into someone. "Sorry!" she called, and kept running. She looked back, saw the person, and stopped dead in her tracks.

Max ran into her. 

"Sorry, Max." Rayne helped him off the ground and looked back at the person. He was still standing there.

Duo put his hands in his pockets and acted like nothing happened, turning around in hopes that Rayne hadn't noticed him.

"Hey!" No such luck. Rayne ran towards him. "Look, I'm sorry. We were in a hurry, and..." It was then that Duo first noticed the guy with her.

"It's okay," he said.

"I've seen you before, haven't I?" Rayne asked.

"Um...I dunno, have you?" She shrugged. "My name's Duo Maxwell."

"Rayne Cetauri. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Max Kine."

"Nice to meet both of you," Duo said. "Well, I have to be going, so-"

"Wait a minute!" Rayne objected. "I've seen you before, right? You were the guy with the wrong address...?" Duo laughed.

"Yeah, that was me. Strange how you would remember that..." _"And not remember anything else about the Gundams,"_ he thought.

"But I've seen you before that."

"Huh?! You have?"

"Yeah," Rayne said. "But I don't remember where..."

__

"Should I tell her?" Duo wondered.

"I _have_ seen you before, right? Do you remember me?"

"You really want to know? 'Cause once I tell you, you're gonna have to make a decision."

"What do you mean?" Rayne asked.

__

"That's exactly what I was wondering," Max thought to himself.

"I'll explain it to you as soon as we find a place where we can sit down," Duo told her. "Come on."

~*~

Duo, Max, and Rayne sat at a small table in a café. Rayne and Max were listening intently as their new friend explained everything that he knew about Rayne.

"I guess I was right, then," Max said sullenly after Duo had finished. Rayne nodded silently.

"So now you get it?" Duo asked.

"Yeah," Rayne told him. "But...this is just...I mean, woah. I-I had no idea...but I think I remember...a little."

"And you have a choice to make. Do you wanna stay here...or go back?" Duo asked.

"You want me to figure that out _now_?"

"I know, you need some time to think it over. Is two days enough time?" Rayne nodded.

"Yeah...two days. I can deal with that."

~*~

Rayne and Max walked back to Max's house in silence, except for a few single comments. They walked through the front door and sat down.

"That was..." Rayne trailed off.

"Interesting," Max offered.

"Yeah."

"So...what do you think you're going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know, Max. I wish I did...but I don't," Rayne lied. 

~*~

For Rayne, the next two days seemed like they would never end. There were so many questions...so many possibilities. So much to leave behind.

And she knew that either choice she made would let someone down.

She sighed and looked around. Max had been such a good friend...she didn't know of anyone else who offered the same kindness and friendship that he offered.

But there was something else there. Something different from anything that Rayne had ever known.

"Rayne?" The brunette teenager turned around as Max knocked on the door of her room. She opened it for him.

"Hi Max," she said. He smiled in return. "So...what's wrong, you look worried?"

"Nothing. It's just...you have a tough decision to make. And as much as I want you to stay, I think it might be good if you went with...um..."

"Duo?" Rayne reminded him, smiling. "Max, I don't know what I'm going to do. I _want_ to stay with you...but that may not be what should happen.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Whatever happens, you know we'll always be friends." The faintest hint of a smile appeared on Max's face.

"Yeah, you're right. I just want you to know..."

"Please, Max! Don't do this to me! You're just going to make my decision harder..." Rayne bit her lip and sighed. Max brushed a strand of hair away from her eye.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But I _do_ care about you."

"I know," Rayne whispered. "I...well, you know." The doorbell rang. Both she and Max knew who it would be. Max kissed her on the cheek and stood up, leaving to answer the door.

"Hey, Duo," he said.

"Hi," Duo greeted. Rayne appeared in the doorway behind Max. "So...have you made a decision yet?" Rayne stepped in front of Max so she could see both him and Duo.

"Well," she said. "I know where I want to be." She turned to Max. "And now...I know where I was." She looked at Duo. "I guess...I guess the only question is where I'm going from here." She wiped a tear away from her eye.

"And..." Max trailed off. He wanted so badly for her to stay...to live the life of a person, rather than a soldier. To have a friend...to be a friend...but it was her own decision.

"Max, I think we were both right. What...we can't always have what we want. You were right for wanting the best for me...I've made my choice." She walked towards Max as he stood in the doorway, and lightly kissed him on the lips. "I think I have to go." Max showed the faintest sign of crying as his eyes filled with tears. 

"Woah," Duo said. "I don't wanna break up a relationship..."

"Duo, I want to remember my past. I think that this could help me." She turned to Max, her cheeks streaked with tears. "Thank you Max...for everything. And...I'll see you again."

"Well, if you're sure-" Duo began.

"Yes, I'm sure," Rayne interrupted. "G'bye, Max." Duo lead her away, saying a silent thank-you to Max.

"Good bye, Rayne," Max whispered just as they were out of sight. "I... please, Rayne, come back alive."

**__**

Chapter 9: Demons of Time

"So...where are we going?" Rayne asked.

"A mobile suit hangar. The others should be there," Duo told her quietly. Rayne nodded.

"How long will it take to get there?" 

"Not too long. We can catch the bus." Duo pointed at the bus stop and they both walked towards it. 

__

"I hope we get there soon..."

~*~

Rayne and Duo stood in front of a large building, Rayne looked up at it quietly, and then watched Duo walk inside. She followed him.

Inside the building were three huge mobile suits. Rayne gasped and ran towards them. _"They're beautiful!"_ she thought in excitement.

"I guess the others left for a while," Duo said loudly. Rayne kept staring at the mobile suit.

"Nope," came a voice from one of the mobile suits. This one was lying flat on its back on the ground. Its hatch opened and a young man walked out of the suit. "Well, Heero left. Said he'd be back in a while...something about having to pick something up."

"Hey, Quatre!" Duo said. Quatre grinned and climed down from the suit.

"So what're you doing back here so soon?"

"Are these the Gundams?" Rayne called to Duo abruptly. Both he and Quatre looked at her.

"Rayne?!" Quatre exclaimed. Rayne just stared at him for a long moment in silence. Then, she walked over to where the two pilots were standing. 

"Hi," Rayne said. "So...um...you recognize me?"

"Well...yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Quatre asked.

"Um...never mind, I guess." From somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled.

"It's gonna rain," Duo said. Rayne nodded in agreement. "Say, where'd Heero go?"

__

"Heero? Who...he sounds familiar, too..." Rayne thought.

"He left a little while ago. He should be back soon," Quatre said.

"Oh, okay." A long, awkward moment of silence followed.

"So...which Gundam belongs to who?" Rayne finally asked. Duo pointed at the Deathscythe.

"Deathscythe's mine," he explained. Then, he pointed at Sandrock. "That's Quatre's, Sandrock." Then, Rayne looked at the third Gundam. "That's Heero's, the Wing Zero."

"...Wing Zero?" Rayne wondered.

"Yep," Duo said. Suddenly, the vid-link on his Gundam switched on. He climbed into the cockpit and watched the message being given to him. "Hey, guys," he said. "We have a mission."

~*~

The three pilots began to eat their dinner. They hadn't had the time to cook anything, so they ordered pizza. Rain fell on the roof in a steady beat, loud in the ears of the pilots. And every so often, thunder would crash or lightning would strike.

"You never said what your new mission was," Quatre said. Duo swallowed a bite of his pizza and explained.

"The White Fang is sending their mobile doll troops out...there's gonna be one hell of a battle."

"I see. And...how many?"

"I don't know for sure. But I can tell you, there's a lot."

"So you guys will need some help?" Rayne asked.

"Maybe. But...you don't really have a mobile suit any more," Duo told her.

"Good point." Rayne stared at her pizza and sighed.

"We'd better tell Heero when he gets here," Quatre said.

"Yeah. Where the hell is he, anyways?" Duo asked.

"I wonder if he got caught in the storm?" Rayne suggested. Suddenly, the door flew open. In the darkness of the doorway stood Heero, soaking wet with a usual scowl on his face. Without a word, he walked past the pilots and into his room to dry off. "Let me guess. That was Heero?" Quatre and Duo nodded. Rayne threw her empty paper plate away and looked at the door.

"Where are you going?" Quatre asked as she left.

"To see the Gundams," Rayne answered. Neither Quatre nor Duo asked why.

~*~

__

"Can these mobile suits tell me anything about my past?" Rayne wondered. _"No, of course they can't. They're just...mobile suits. But...they're _part_ of my past. Grrr...when will I remember?!"_ She looked up at the Gundams and noticed that something was different. Then, she realized...

"There's another one here!" she whispered. And there was. It looked very much like the Wing Zero, but a little smaller and it seemed more beat-up. She went back to the main building connected to the hangar to ask the others about it.

"Hey, what's up Rayne?" Duo asked.

"There's another Gundam in the hangar," Rayne told him.

"You've _got_ to be kidding." Rayne shook her head.

"I'm serious! Come on!" Duo jumped up and followed Rayne.

He stared at the fourth Gundam in disbelief.

"I think Heero brought it back," Rayne said to him, putting her hands on her hips. She sighed and leaned her weight on her left leg, still looking at the Gundam.

"Probably," Duo agreed. He hadn't seen this Gundam in a while... "Actually, it's Heero's Gundam."

"What?! I thought the Wing Zero was his Gundam!"

"Actually, Quatre was its first pilot. Then it was Zechs. Then Zechs traded the Wing Zero for the Epyon. This one...I think it's called Gundam Wing...it's Heero's original mobile suit," Duo explained.

"Jeez, I never thought a hunk of metal could have so much history," Rayne muttered.

"Before...um, before you lost your memory -and your Gundam- you were partial to it. In fact," Duo laughed, "When I first asked why you named it, you said 'because that's what he wanted me to call him'. But it shouldn't be a surprise, these Gundams are occasionally life-savers."

Rayne and Duo heard footsteps and turned around, where a now-dry Heero stood.

"Where'd you find this?" Rayne asked, beating Duo to the question.

"Dr. J contacted me and said that he found and repaired it after my last battle," Heero explained.

"So what're you gonna do with the one you decide not to use?" Duo wondered. Heero looked over at Rayne.

"You can use it," he told her. Rayne looked surprised. "From what I've heard, our next battle could be pretty fierce." She nodded.

"Right," Rayne agreed. Then she yawned and said, "And a little preparation never hurt anyone. We could...um, sharpen our skills. Or in my case, remember them." She laughed. Without another word, she walked inside and to the bedrooms, opening the last door in the hall and walking into hers.

She hardly remembered climbing into her bed and going to sleep.

~*~

The sun was rising as Rayne opened her eyes. The coulds from the previous night had long since disappeared, leaving a thick morning fog behind in the secluded woods around the mobile suit hangar and the attached house.

Rayne got up and changed her clothes. She then walked into the kitchen and, noticing that no one else was up yet, poured herself a bowl of cereal from one of the cabinets. _"For being Gundam pilots, someone really keeps this place kind of neat...unless Duo's been out here,"_ she thought to herself. 

She was just finishing her breakfast when Duo walked into the kitchen.

"Hey," he mumbled, still half asleep. Rayne smiled in return. "How can you be so cheerful?" he wondered.

"I dunno," Rayne told him. "Guess I'm just a morning person, and you're not."

"You can say that again," Duo said. "...but don't. If you do, I might have to rip your head off."

"Um...you don't mean that literally, do you?" Rayne asked.

"It depends. Wanna find out?"

"Not really. Uh, I'm just gonna leave now..." Rayne slowly walked out of the kitchen and back to her room. Putting on her shoes, she heard a knock on the door. "Come on in," she said. Quatre opened the door.

"Duo told me last night that he'd volunteer to help you remember how to operate the Gundams," he said.

"Okay," she responded. Then she added quietly, "It's kind of weird."

"What do you mean?" Quatre asked.

"Learning that you're not just a civilian. That you can make an impact on the future. It's just...weird," she said.

Yeah...I guess it is, now that you think of it." Rayne laughed. Quatre turned to leave, but Rayne stopped him.

"Hey, Quatre?" He turned around. "Did I mention anything to you about...about my past? Y'know, before what happened?" she asked.

"Well...actually, you did," he told her.

"Could you tell me everything that I told you? I just...I want to remember it." So Quatre stood in the doorway and retold the story that she had told to him.

~*~

Heero walked silently into the kitchen, where Duo was still sitting.

"Hey, Heero," Duo said. Heero just glared at him. "Sheesh, fine," he then mumbled. Silently, Heero walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice. He grabbed a glass and poured some in it, then put the orange juice back.

Duo finished his breakfast and stood up. Heero was leaning on the counter drinking his orange juice.

"Have you ever even _tried_ acting like a person?" Duo asked. Heero said nothing. "It's no use, you're hopeless!" Duo melodramatically threw up his arms and overexaggerated a sigh. This produced the slightest hint of a grin from Heero. "Hey, looks like the Perfect Pilot actually knows how to laugh! My mission is complete!"

Rayne stood in the doorway of the kitchen, currently unnoticed by either Heero or Duo.

"I'm starting to wonder if there's such a thing as a normal pilot," she joked. Duo looked at her.

"Just tryin' to start a conversation with Mr. Antisocial over here," he said, jabbing a thumb at Heero.

"Ah, I see," Rayne told him. "Don't try soo hard that you hurt yourself, I heard that getting a conversation outta him can be pretty hard." Heero rolled his eyes and walked out of the room, heading towards the mobile suit hangar.

"Well," Duo said. "Guess we should start, huh?" Rayne nodded. They both went out to the hangar, where Heero was looking up at the Wing. _(A/N: I'll call Heero's original Gundam the Wing, but I'll still refer to the Wing Zero as...well, Wing Zero.)_ He climbed up to the cockpit and looked inside, then went in and closed the hatch.

"I guess he won't be piloting the Wing Zero. Maybe you'll be using that one," Duo told Rayne.

"Yeah, I was hoping it wouldn't come to that," she muttered as they walked towards the Wing Zero. Duo separated from her and went to his Deathscythe.

Rayne looked up at the Wing Zero and sighed. _"How can I pilot this Gundam after..."_

"What're you waiting for?" Duo called to her from the Deathscythe.

"I-I don't think I can do this," Rayne told him. He left his Gundam and walked towards her.

"Why not?" he asked.

"The Wing Zero is a murderer," Rayne told him.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The Wing Zero is why my parents are dead," she explained. "I can't go in there and pilot the machine that's responsible for tearing my life apart."

"You remember..."

"Kind of. Quatre told me everything that he knew, from when I told him my story."

"Oh, I see," Duo muttered."Well, you can't be afraid of a mobile suit forever. I mean, i's just-"

"A hunk of metal," Rayne finished. "I know. But, still..."

"Come on, Rayne! Just get up there and you'll see!" Duo persisted.

"Okay, okay, I'll go." Rayne reluctantly went up to the cockpit and went inside. She soon heard Duo's voice from the com-link.

"Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rayne responded, her voice a little shaky. From the Deathscythe, Duo grinned. 

"Duo," Heero's voice came through the com-link.

"What is it?"

"Tell her about the Zero System," Heero said.

"Oh, yeah."

"It's only activated if you type in ZERO. Tell her that."

"Gotcha. Hey, Rayne!" Duo called.

"Yeah?"

"There's a system in the Wing Zero...called the Zero System. To activate it, just type in ZERO. But don't...not now. It kind of makes you hallucinate...see things that aren't really there."

"Okay, I got it. So...what do these buttons do? I can't remember..."

"See that green button on your left?"

"No," Rayne said. "There's no green button..." Then, something caught her eye and she grinned. She knew what that certain button did. "Hey, what about this big red button with the yellow and black striped square around it? What would happen if I hit it?"

"DON'T TOUCH IT! Hold on a minute!" The com-link switched off and a few moments later, Duo stood on the hatch of the Wing Zero. "Don't touch that!" He saw Rayne's hand over the button she has described to him.

"Relax, Duo. I know what it does, and I wasn't about to hit it. I kind of planned on living a little longer...at least until our next battle." Duo breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's something that doesn't need to be joked about," he said. Then, he leaned over her shoulder and began to explain the functions of the controls. Suddenly, a feeling of Deja Vu went over her. 

__

"I remember this," she thought. _"I remember..."_

****

Chapter 10: The Longest Night

"Y'all!" Rayne called through the com-link.

"Huh?" Duo asked. "You say _y'all_? Gee, Rayne, I didn't think that _you_ would say 'y'all'," he joked.

"Um...you guys, should we get going?" 

"I guess so," Quatre said. 

"Then let's go!" Duo shouted. 

"Hold it!" Rayne said. "The Wing and the Wing Zero can go into flight mode...what're _you_ guys gonna do?"

"Oh...um, good point. How 'bout we get ourselves a carrier?" Duo suggested. 

"There's only one," Quatre told him, turning the Sandrock towards it. He and Duo loaded their Gundams into the carrier and went inside. "We'll meet you out there," he said to Rayne and Heero.

"Right," Rayne agreed as she typed in a code. The Wing Zero began to change as it transformed into flight mode. Then the engine began to heat up and she flew away from the mobile suit hangar, Heero, Duo, and Quatre close behind her.

~*~

"You should've given a better estimate on the enemy numbers," Heero said to Duo.

"Hey, sorry, I could only guess," Duo replied as he looked at the many, _many_ White Fang mobile suits below him, all in combat with OZ's forces.

"That's obvious," Rayne muttered. "Let's just try and stay alive for most of the time, okay?" She guided the Wing Zero into the battle.

~*~

"Sir, there are two shuttles and a mobile suit carrier approaching the battlefield," said a White Fang soldier to his commanding officer.

"Find out who they are and what they're doing here. They could be allied with the enemy."

"I copy that."

~*~

"Maybe we could do a sneak attack on them," Quatre suggested.

"Um, I think they noticed us already," Rayne pointed out as a troop of mobile dolls flew towards them.

"Okay then...let's get going!" Duo shouted. Rayne nodded in silent agreement as she began to pick up an enemy radio transmission.

"We're investigating them as we speak, sir." 

__

"Let's give 'em a surprise then," she thought as the Wing Zero went out of flight mode.

"It's the Wing Zero!"

"The Gundams!"

"Here?!"

"We can take them! There's only one...two...there's only two of them!"

"Are you sure?"

"We're gonna try anyways!"

"Rayne!" Duo called.

"What?" Rayne asked.

"We're headin' out."

"No...wait. They're only expecting two of us. Let me and Heero handle this," Rayne ordered. Se heard the slightest sound of a laugh from Duo.

"Fine, whatever you say," he told her. "Distract them long enough so that Quatre and I can get past them."

"Got it. Just wait till we attack them, then go." She laughed and propelled the Wing Zero towards the troop of Taurus mobile suits. _"They're using manned mobile suits,"_ she noticed. _"They probably didn't expect a battle. Or they didn't have enough mobile dolls. Or...oh, hell, just attack them."_ She followed her own orders and drew the Wing Zero's beam saber, then put it back.

The Taurus mobile suits seemed confused for a moment, then started attacking her. She took out the buster rifle and fired once, missing the mobile suits completely.

"Damn!" she hissed. "C'mon, Rayne, concentrate...remember how this used to go..." An image suddenly flashed in her head and she froze. "What the-" She shook her head and tightener her grasp on the Wing Zero's controls.

The targeting icon moved over her screen and locked on to a target, three Taurus mobile suits. She took careful aim with the buster rifle and fired. This time, she didn't miss.

"The manned mobile suits...destroying them is...just the same," she whispered, in awe of the statement. "I don't care any more for them than for the mobile dolls...why?" She closed her eyes for a minute in thought. _"I could...but what would it do?"_

"It's worth a try," she muttered to herself as she typed in the four keys: ZERO.

The inside of the cockpit began to light up, like it was glowing. She could feel something going through her. As she looked at the screen, she saw a blur of images, the targeting icon jumped all over her screen. 

Then, a Taurus mobile suit appeared out of nowhere! She instinctively took aim with the buster rifle and fired...hitting nothing. She blinked, and the mobile suit was gone. 

Before she could say another word, she feld a blow from behind. Turning around, she saw a second mobile suit and again fired at it. This time an explosion followed. But the beam from her rifle kept going, lancing through three other Tauruses, and then it hit the Wing.

"No!" Rayne screamed. She shut her eyes tight and then opened them again. Nothing had happened. "What the hell is going on?!" She deactivated the Zero System and took a deep breath.

"I-I'll do this without Wing Zero's help," she told herself as her breathing slowed back to normal. _"Wing Zero, I hate you."_

~*~

"How're you guys doing?" a shaky Rayne asked through the com-link.

"We're still alive, aren't we?" Duo asked. Rayne laughed a little.

"I dunno, are you?" Now it was Duo's turn to laugh.

"Yeah. But we're not gonna last forever if we don't get a little help," he said, putting extra emphasis on the word 'help'. 

"I'm almost done over here. I had a slight...technical problem. No big deal. Be with ya in a little while." The com-link disconnected and Rayne got back to her fight. She had drawn the beam saber, deciding that it was an easier form of combat for her, and was quickly destroying the mobile suits.

A last suit exploded as Rayne sliced into its metal midsection and pulled away. A smile began to form on her face and she looked for the Deathscythe. Finally, she saw it and flew the Wing Zero to the surrounding battle.

"Glad you decided to show up!" Duo called to her. 

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, where's Quatre?" 

"He's in a battle of his own. Feel free to start one around yourself, join the party."

"Aren't _you_ the lively one in battle?"

"They don't call me the God of Death for nothin', y'know," Duo pointed out.

"Just get on with your battle, oh great and powerful 'God of Death'," Rayne joked.

"Remind me to get you back when we get out of this." With no reply, Rayne began to attack a group of Virgo mobile dolls.

~*~

It was late afternoon and Duo was, for the first time in a while, finding himself outnumbered. The Gundams had managed to reduce the White Fang troops significantly, but there were still many more mobile suits. He looked at the Wing Zero, and saw that it, too, was being surrounded. He couldn't see either the Sandrock or the Wing, but he had a feeling that there were plenty of moile suits to surround each of the Gundams.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath. Then he opened a com-link to the pilot of the Wing Zero. "Rayne," he said.

"We're not giving up," she said stubbornly.

"Of course not," Duo agreed. "But there's something else we can do. I'm sure by now Heero's thinking of it, too."

"Duo...we can't," Rayne objected.

"It's the only chance we've got," Duo stated.

"I didn't plan on losing any of you guys!" Rayne snapped.

"Always plan for the worst." Duo gave her an un-Duo-like glare on the vid-link and she didn't know what to say.

"Duo...self-detonation is almost as bad as surrender," Rayne told him after a long period of silence, in which time she had slashed at one of her surrounding Virgos.

"No it's not," he objected. 

"It's practically suicide! And unless I'm mistaken, we are _not_ Kamikaze pilots!" Rayne paused. "And as I said before, I refuse to die here!"

"Rayne-"

"If we self-detonate, it might destroy a few of these troops. But there are still more! And we have to destroy Battleship Libra after this, if we want to end this damn war! We won't be of any use if we're dead!"

"But we can't let them have the Gundams!"

"Then they won't have the Gundams! But if I go down, they'll have to kill me. I won't do it myself. Anyone who would is insane."

"It describes Heero perfectly," Duo muttered to himself. "Okay," he then agreed.

"Then let's show these goons that we're not done fighting yet!" In a flash, Rayne pulled out Wing Zero's buster rifle and began to shoot without aiming, sweeping over the troops in an arc.

The Deathscythe gripped its beam scythe and swung it at the mobile suits. Duo grinned as the manned mobile suits were caught off guard. But the mobile dolls attacked instantly. Now, it was Duo's turn to be surprised as he was attacked from behind. He spun around, slashing at the mobile dolls with the beam scythe. 

Explosions lit up the darkening sky.

~*~

There were still many more troops, but again, their numbers had noticeably dropped.

"Rayne, I seriously don't think we're gonna make it if-"

"Duo, please don't start! If we need anything to get though this battle, then we need at least _some_ hope!" Duo didn't reply. A Taurus mobile doll had its beam saber raised at him before he noticed it, and was about to receive a hard blow when...

A pillar of fire ripped through the mobile doll. In the distance, a lone mobile suit could be seen, white against the deep blue sky. Duo laughed...he knew who the pilot was.

"Hey, Wufei!" he called.

"You looked like you needed a little help," Wufei said matter-of-factly from the Shenlong Gundam. Rayne looked at the newcoming pilot in confusion.

"Who's he?" she asked Duo.

"That's right, you never met Wufei. Um...you might not want to, either," he told her, remembering some of Wufei's comments. Rayne shrugged and continued to fight.

The battle continued through the night and into the first hours of dawn. Rayne was physically and mentally tired. _"This is definately a big battle,"_ she concluded. They had managed to hold off the White Fang for a while, while suffering little damage. Rayne had received the most, the midsection and head of the Wing Zero were scorched almost black, and its beam saber flickered a little.

__

"This is it," Duo thought. _"If we're gonna win, it's gonna be now. No more kid games."_ The enemy numbers were dwindling, while the Gundams' ammunition and fuel were running low.

Rayne yawned as she sliced through the last of the troop she was attacking, and another set of mobile dolls followed it. She did the same thing, destroying each of them as quickly as she could. She could only count three more troops. It would be over soon...

She watched the other pilots destroy the remaining faction of the White Fang mobile suits, trying to keep her eyes open.

"We did it," she muttered tiredly. And that was the last thing that happened before she switched off the Wing Zero's controls and fell asleep right there inside the Gundam's cockpit.

**__**

Chapter 11: New Old Friends

The five Gundams stood in a circle, each one facing the other. _"This feels so familiar,"_ Rayne thought. One by one, Heero Duo, and Quatre stepped on to the opened hatches and looked at her and the other pilot to do the same.

The hatch of the Altron _(A/N: Oops, I accidentally put 'Shenlong' in the last chapter...I'll remember to call Wufei's Gundam Altron from now on.)_ opened first, and a Chinese youth stepped out of the cockpit. Rayne realized that she had never seen him before.

__

"Guess it wouldn't be right for me not to introduce myself," she thought, and quickly opened the hatch.

"Hi," Rayne yelled to him. "I'm Rayne Cetauri. What's your name?"

Wufei's eyes went wide as he saw the pilot. "I thought you fought a little too weakly," he said with a small smirk. "Now I know why, you're a woman." Rayne gritted her teeth.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" she demanded.

"Uh-oh," Duo muttered. Rayne, hearing this, glared at the American pilot.

"Damn right 'uh-oh'! I'm gonna beat the sh-"

"Rayne, calm down!" Quatre shouted. Not acknowledging his comment, Rayne descended from the Wing Zero and went to the Altron, looking up at its pilot.

"I'm not going to fight you," Wufei called to her.

"Why not?!" Rayne demanded.

"I don't fight weaklings...or women." Without another word he went back into the Gundam. "Nataku, let's go...we've fulfilled our duty here." Rayne moved away from the ascending Altron Gundam reluctantly.

"Damnit, get back here!" she ordered in anger. She ran for the Wing Zero, then felt a hand on her right arm. She stopped and turned to face Duo. "What?!" she demanded.

"We're not supposed to fight _each other_. Save it for Libra."

~*~

"I'm sorry that I acted so stupid. But he pissed me off," Rayne apologized when they got back to the familiar mobile suit hangar where they had made their temporary home.

"We can't waste our time fighting with each other," Quatre pointed out. "We have to get to space as soon as possible...to destroy Libra before it destroys the Earth." The other pilots agreed.

"So when will we be going?" Rayne asked. They were all undecisive.

"As soon as we can," Duo said.

"Well, that really helps," she muttered. Then she looked around and sighed. "I think I'm gona go for a walk." She left the hangar and looked into the woods in the east. Then she quietly walked away.

~*~

The sun was high overhead and Rayne was still walking. _"How long have I been out here?"_ she wondered, looking up at the covering of leaves above her head, the midday sun shining between the individual leaves. She heard the shrill cry of a bird from far away.

Suddenly she stopped, hearing a twig snap from somewhere behind her. But she heard nothing more like it. Shaking her head, she continued to walk deeper and deeper into the forest.

"Should I go back now?" Rayne wondered aloud as she sat on a recently-cut stump. She sighed and took a moment to listen to the noises of the forest, feeling a thankful break from the sound of explosions and such from battles.

It was a while before Rayne decided to go back to her friends. They might have started wondering where she was. She got up and faced the way that she had come...or the way that she _hoped_ she had come.

She began to walk, hearing the sound of dry twigs and leaves cracking beneath her shoes. She winces, not wishing to disturb the silence that had come over the forest, but continued any ways. After a while of walking she came to a conclusion.

"I'm lost," she whispered as she studied the tree that stood beside her. "And I could've _sworn_ that I've seen that tree at_ least _a few times already!" She sighed and looked around, then sat down on the ground. "Great," she muttered. "I'm lost, tired of walking, and the sun's gonna go down soon! What else could happen?!"

Rayne leaned back on a tree and waited for a few hours. It was just beginning to get dark before she decided to go on, and if she got even further lost, then it wouldn't be worse than _this_. So she stood up, brushed the dry leaves off the back of her jeans, and started walking again.

"I wish I had a watch," she muttered soon after. The sun was setting quickly, and she didn't want to be in the woods after dark. "The hangar has to be around here somewhere..." She felt a strong hand grab her wrist, and another one covered her mouth.

"Scream and I won't hesitate to hurt you," a deep, raspy voice hissed in Rayne's ear. Her eyes got wide with fear as she realized that this had happened before.

__

"Where...what the hell? When has this happened before?" she wondered as she was dragged into a van. The hand that covered her mouth was gone now, and before the van doors closed, she had a chance to scream.

"HELP! Heero! Quatre! Duo! ANYBODY!" she yelled frantically.

"Shut up!" the same raspy voice commanded as the van door closed. Rayne cursed in frustration and looked around. In the darkness, she could barely see anything.

The driver door of the van opened and then closed, a shadow falling over the seat. The engine began to hum and Rayne felt a jolt as the van started moving.

~*~

Duo stood outside looking at the woods, where he had seen Rayne just a few hours ago. He sighed and leaned against the outer wall of the mobile suit hangar. Quatre soon joined him.

"She isn't back yet?" Quatre asked. Duo shook his head.

"I'm starting to wonder if something happened to her. She wouldn't be gone this long..."

"Maybe she's lost," Quatre suggested.

"Yeah, maybe. But I can't help but think..." suddenly, Duo stopped talking and listened. In the distance there was a faint cry.

"What is it?" Quatre asked.

"I-I heard something," Duo whispered.

"You sure? I don't hear anything..." Duo shook his head and sighed.

"Maybe it was just my imagination."

~*~

Rayne growled in frustration as handcuffs were locked around her wrists and she was thrown into a cell. _"Why would they want to lock me up?"_ she wondered. _"I'm sure these guys are with Romafellar and OZ...so why would they capture me after I helped them?"_

She slumped down against the wall of the cell and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, the door opened. She stood up and leaned on the wall, glaring at the soldier standing in the doorway, who wore the uniform of OZ.

"Come to take me to the gas chamber?" she asked dryly. The soldier didn't respond, he just grabbed her arm and started leading her through the halls.

They walked through the door of the mobile suit repair building and Rayne just stood there in awe of what she was looking at. A man walked towards her.

"You're the pilot?" he asked. Rayne shrugged.

"I honestly don't know," she answered. The man nodded.

"Well, you _did_ have a pretty rough time. Yes...you _are_ the pilot. I remember you."

"It's a pity that I can't do the same," Rayne snapped. "What do you want me for, anyways?"

"This mobile suit," he gestured towards the mobile suit that Rayne had been staring at, "It's yours."

"What?! You're gonna let me have it?"

"It's rightfully yours. You've piloted it before...I've seen you in action. You're very good, actually. And we want you to help us."

"By 'we' you mean OZ?"

"Yes. This Gundam has been rebuilt mostly for space flight. You'll be going -hopefully with the other Gundam pilots- to the space fortress Libra. We're staging an attack on it...even though it's against Queen Relena's orders. We have no other choice."

"I'll take the Gundam," Rayne said. "But I can't promise that I'll help you out." The man smiled at her.

"Then you'll go back and think over your decision."

~*~

Rayne winced as she was literally thrown into her cell.

"Think ya coulda been a little gentler?!" she demanded as the door slammed shut. "Jerks," she muttered. "Guess I'll just have to sit here some more."

After a long time of sitting and doing nothing, Rayne stood up and began to pace. "This really sucks." She leaned on the walls and walked around the dark cell, her fingers brushing against the handcuffs on her wrists.

"Okay, this is getting old!" she yelled to no one in particular. "You can let me out now!" No one heard her and she sighed. "Jeez, how long are they gonna keep me here?!" The click of heels on tiles reached her ears and she found it growing steadily louder with each footstep.

__

"Hopefully it's someone who's come to their senses and is going to let me out of this damn cell," she thought bitterly. And as if her wishes were answered, the door opened.

"Finally," Rayne snapped. "I was wondering when-" she stopped, seeing that the person in the doorway was definately not a soldier. Instead was a girl, seemingly around Rayne's age. She sighed. _"Probably coming to see someone,"_ she thought. "I think you may have the wrong cell," she muttered.

"I don't know. Are you the Gundam pilot?"

"Yeah...unless one of the others is locked up somewhere around here." Rayne studied the girl. She had honey-colored hair that fell halfway down her back and dark blue eyes. She reminded Rayne a little of Quatre...though she didn't know why.

"No, I don't think so." They stood in a strange silence for a few minutes. "Well...I'm sorry for the way these soldiers have treated you," she apologized.

"Hey, you didn't have anything to do with it. Not your fault. It's mine...for being dumb enough to be captured," Rayne told the girl. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Rayne Cetauri. And...who are you?"

"Relena Peacecraft," the girl answered. Rayne looked at her wide-eyed.

"Oh, I'm sorry...I didn't recognize you, Queen-"

"Please, don't," Relena requested. "Call me Relena."

"Okay then, Relena. Call me Rayne." Relena laughed. "So why do you care that I'm a Gundam pilot?"

"I came to get you out of here," Relena explained.

"Really? Thanks!" Rayne stopped for a moment and then thought of something. "There's a mobile suit in the repair sector that belongs to me...I need to get it," she then said.

"Go ahead, no one's stopping you." Relena moved aside and Rayne stepped out of the cell, then looked at her handcuffs. "I guess you need a key..." Rayne struggled with the cuffs for a minute and then, after nearly rubbing her wrists raw, the handcuffs broke away.

"Thanks, but I got it," she explained before running towards the sector where her Gundam was.

~*~

"This mobile suit seems so familiar," Rayne whispered as she looked up at the suit. It was light blue and white, and it looked like it was covered with frost. One name jumped into her head: Riverdown. "Riverdown...that's what I called you before, isn't it? Guess I'll call you Neo Riverdown now, then," she whispered.

She climbed up into the cockpit and closed the hatch. It felt so...strange. So familiar...and she saw someone below her. It was Relena. She walked back out of the cockpit and stood at the edge of the lowered hatch.

"Rayne!" Relena called. Rayne climbedback down to the ground. "I was wondering...if you knew another Gundam pilot. His name is Heero Yuy."

"Actually, I _do_ know him. Really unsociable guy," Rayne mused.

"Could you take me to him?" Relena asked hopefully. 

"Uh...sure, I guess. If you're sure you want to see him...he's kind of weird."

"Yes, I want to see him." Rayne looked up at the Neo Riverdown.

"You're gonna have to get there on your own. I could meet you somewhere and take you..."

"That would be fine." Rayne scribbled an address on a piece of paper and held it in her hand.

"You have to promise me that you won't bring anyone... Meet me at this place...10:45 tomorrow morning. That okay?" Relena nodded. "Good. I'll see you then. Thanks, Relena." Relena smiled.

"Thank you, Rayne." And they went their seperate ways.

**__**

Chapter 12: To the Stars

The forest was below Rayne as she flew, totally lost, trying to find the place where she knew the others would be. _"They completely rebuilt this Gundam...even gave it a flight mode,"_ she thought. Finally, she saw it: the mobile suit hangar. It was far in the distance, but at least she knew now where to go.

Suddenly an image flashed in her mind...and she began to remember everything.

__

Duo Maxwell looked over at the light blue Gundam.

"Where'd you come from?" he asked the pilot. 

"Don't ask," the pilot replied. Duo saw the figure of a pilot stepping out of the Gundam. He did the same. But he took a double-take as soon as he realized who the pilot was.

"Hey! You're-" he began, but the pilot cut him off, saying, "You didn't notice before now?" Duo scowled and continued.

"You're a girl!" Duo finished. The pilot crossed her arms.

"Yeah, so? You have a problem with that?" Duo didn't say anything. The pilot laughed. "My name's Rayne Cetauri. Who are you?" she called to him.

"Duo Maxwell."

"The first time I met him?" Rayne wondered. "Oh, man, how weird..." She took notice to the fact that the Neo Riverdown was flying off course and quickly corrected its path. _"Everything...I remember everything."_

~*~

Quatre looked towards the forest yet again and sighed. Maybe Rayne wasn't coming back...she had been gone for nearly a day. _"What if something happened?"_ he wondered. He looked up at the sky and caught a glimpse of something in the distance. It looked like a plane. 

He went inside to see Duo eating, and Heero was nowhere in sight.

"Duo!" he said. The pilot looked up at him.

"Hey, Quatre, what's up?"

"There's a plane heading this way!"

"Let's check it out!"

~*~

The Neo-Riverdown came to a stopping point right in front of the large metal door that hid four Gundams in the mobile suit hangar. Rayne opened the outer door and jumped down to the ground. Moments later, Duo and Quatre ran out of the main building and stopped.

"Rayne!" they said in unison. She smiled weakly at them.

"Hi," she greeted. Duo stepped forward.

"Where've you been?" he asked.

"Yeah, we thought that somethingmight have happened to you..." Quatre agreed. Rayne sighed and stretched her arms up.

"Guys, I really don't think I could tell the whole thing now...I need to get a little sleep...I didn't go to sleep at all last night."

"Uh, okay," Duo responded with a shrug. Rayne smiled as a thank-you and went inside. She grabbed a small apple from the kitchen and took a bite out of it. Sitting down at the table, she reflected on the images that had been coming to her, ever since she piloted the Wing Zero. Was it related to those flashbacks...?

"It triggered those memories somehow," Rayne muttered to herself. "And so did the Neo Riverdown...but thanks to them, I remember everything." Supressing a yawn, she stood up and left the room, throwing her half-eaten apple into the trash on her way.

"I'm exhausted," she said as she sat on her bed. She leaned back and closed her eyes, and unwillingly fell asleep.

Duo and Quatre were about to go back inside when something caught their eyes. It was the Neo Riverdown.

"Hey," Duo said to Quatre, "Where do you think she got _that_?"

~*~

Rayne woke up early the next morning and looked at the clock beside her bed. It read 10:20. She stood up and yawned, then walked out of her room to the kitchen. No one was there.

"Huh," she said, "I woulda thought someone would be here...probably Heero...guess they're still asleep. Oh well." She looked around the room and her eyes fell on the phone. She thought for a moment and wondered if the others would mind if she made a call. _"Well,"_ she thought as she came to a conclusion, _"It's their fault for not being up to stop me."_ She picked up the phone and dialed the seven-digit number.

She heard a ringing noise. It kept going for one ring...

Two...

Three...

And then someone picked up.

"Hello?" a sleep-filled voice asked on the other end of the line.

"Um...Max?"

"Yeah. Who's this?"

"This is Rayne."

"Rayne?!" She heard shock in her friend's voice. "Uh...I mean, Rayne! I didn't expect for you to call."

"I didn't expect to call," Rayne pointed out.

"Got me there. So...what's goin' on?"

"Nothing much. I just came back from a...um, a mission...and I wanted to talk to you."

"Really?" Max asked. 

"Well...I wanted to let you know that I remember," she told him.

"Remember what?" he wondered.

"Everything."

"Everything? Even...her?"

"Yeah...her, too. But let's not go into that."

"So whatcha been up to?"

"Nothing, really...been training with the other pilots. Working on my skills. Meeting new people...occasionally being offended by them..." she joked.

"Uh-oh, what'd you do?"

"Nothing! It was the guy's fault, and he made me mad, and then he left!"

"Oh, jeez...Rayne..."

"What?! Anyone who insults me has it comin'!" She heard Max laugh at the other end of the line.

"You live a dangerous life, my friend." Rayne began to grin.

"Max, you always know how to make me feel better."

"Hey," he said, "What're friends for?"

"Listen...I wanted to tell you that I'm going on a mission soon."

"To where?"

"Space," Rayne told him. "And I don't know exactly when, but soon. And it's dangerous...there's a chance that one of us won't come back." Then, she added as an afterthought, "Or more."

"Rayne...I know you'll do your best to get home. I...don't want this to be the last time we talk. I want to see you again..."

"Yeah, me too...I mean, I want to see you..." she laughed. "If I don't return..."

"Don't talk like that."

"But if I don't...one of the others will tell you." She sighed and looked at the clock. Now it read 10:32. "Listen, I gotta go. I'll talk to you soon...good-bye."

"Yeah, 'bye," Max said and she heard a _click_ as he hung up the receiver. She did the same, grabbed her jacket, and walked out the door. She didn't leave a note as to where she was going, but she knew that she would be back soon.

~*~

Relena stood in front of an old garage, leaning against one of the walls, and waited. She glanced at her watch every few minutes as time slowly passed. Right then it was 10:41. 

__

"Heero," Relena thought, _"Will you be happy to see me?"_ She looked at the cluster of trees beside the building. Her eyes again went to her watch. A mere three minutes had passed. She sensed movement in the direction of the trees, and looked towards them.

"It's about time," she said.

"Sorry...am I late?"

"No, I was early. So, Rayne, are you going to take me?" Rayne nodded.

"I don't know if the guys are up yet, but it'll take us a while to get back so they should be awake by the time we get back." She grinned. "And if they're not, then there's plenty of cold water to go around." 

Relena followed Rayne down a dirt path.

"I didn't realize this was a shortcut on the way out here," Rayne said. "I just went through the woods."

"You didn't see the road?" Relena asked.

"No. I told you, I was in the woods. But this goes the same way. I'll have to remember this."

They walked for a while until the road came to an end. All around it were trees.

"Well," Rayne muttered, looking at Relena. "Guess we'll go through the woods after all."

~*~

"Why the hell does she keep goin' off like this?" Duo wondered. At first he had appeared to be the only one awake, but when he saw Rayne's door open, and that she wasn't in her room, he had gone to look through the building for her. But he hadn't found her. 

He sighed and sat down. _"C'mon Duo, the God of Death doesn't get worried about some girl...even if she _is_ a pilot...a friend. She'll be back soon,"_ he thought to himself. 

Suddenly the door swung open and Rayne walked in. Duo jumped up in surprise.

"Hey Rayne," he said. 

"Hi," she replied. "Are the others awake?"

"I dunno, but their doors are closed so I'm not gonna bug 'em. You want to?" Rayne shrugged.

"Why not?" Before she could get to Heero's door, it opened. Heero looked at Rayne and Duo suspiciously, while both of them tried not to look guilty of a would-be offense. Heero shook his head and walked past them.

Quatre left his room a few minutes later, after some...persuasion from Rayne and Duo. He dried his hair and glared at Rayne, who held an empty glass in her hand. She quickly put it behind her back and grinned.

The four pilots were sitting together and talking about what Rayne had done the previous day. Their conversation was interrupted when the door opened, and Relena cautiously walked into the house.

~*~

All eyes went to Relena as she stood in the doorway and everyone was silent. Rayne stood up.

"Hi, Relena," she said. Relena nodded.

"Thank you for inviting me." The eyes of the three Gundam pilots went to Rayne.

"What?!" Rayne asked. "She released me from OZ. This is my way of thanking her." Suddenly Heero stood up and left the room.

"Jeez," Rayne muttered. "What's _his_ problem?"

"I think I'm the problem," Relena said. 

"Then why did you want to see him?" Rayne asked.

"I honestly don't know." 

"Well..." Duo stood up. "I think I'm gonna go make sure Deathscythe's ready whenever we are."

"I'll come too," Quatre said. "Sandrock may need a few repairs." As soon as the two pilots had left, Rayne shrugged.

"You can go see if you can talk to him, if you want. Stay as long as you need to. I'm going to go check out my Gundam." Relena nodded and Rayne left for the hangar.

~*~

__

"Relena," Heero thought, _"Why did you have to come here?"_ There was a knock on his door, and he heard it slowly creak open.

"Heero?" Relena was looking at him from the doorway.

"Why'd you come here?" he asked in his usual monotone voice. Relena stepped further into his room. Heero turned around and looked at her.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just...had to see you." She saw something in his eyes that she had never seen: shock. "Was that not the answer you expected?" Heero shrugged indifferently.

"If you don't know why you're here, then why don't you leave? We have enough to deal with right now."

"Are you going off on another mission?" Relena asked.

"That's none of your business."

"You're going out to space," she guessed. "So am I."

"Why?"

"I have to try and talk some sense into my brother. If I don't, then who will?"

"I'll warn you now: if you can't, then I won't hesitate to kill him."

__

"When will the fighting end?" Relena wondered.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you to your battles," she said as she left the room, and she thought she saw something else in Heero, something that she had never seen before...something that she couldn't identify.

She walked to the mobile suit hangar where the three other pilots were inspecting their Gundams.

"Hey, Relena!" Rayne called cheerfully. She exited the Neo Riverdown and walked towards the young queen.

"I'm leaving now," Relena said. "Thank you for bringing me here, but the sooner I get to space the sooner I can try to talk to my brother."

"S'okay," Rayne told her. "Good luck."

"Thank you, I'll need it."

**__**

Chapter 13: Fireworks

Rayne looked at her Gundam, absorbing every detail of it to see how much it had changed. _"It has wings,"_ she noticed. _"And it looks like it's covered in ice."_ She lay one hand on it, thinking that she would instantly pull it away from a freezing cold surface. But to her surprise the metal was warm.

"Weird," she whispered. _"I won't be able to call it Neo Riverdown forever...because it isn't Riverdown any more. He needs a new name. How about...maybe I could call him Icewing."_

She stepped back and observed the Gundam again, looked at the midsection with its open hatch, at the shield that was attached to its right arm. She stared into its cold, lifeless green eyes and a chill ran through her.

"Icewing...it fits you," she told it. And then she smiled to cover the sense of dread that grew in the pit of her stomach.

"Hey." She turned around and was relieved...it was Duo.

"Hi Duo," she said.

"You nervous?" Duo asked.

"Who, me? No," Rayne lied.

"Okay, whatever you say." He grinned. 

"When are we leaving?"

"When Heero and Quatre get out here. No time like the present, right?" Rayne nodded in agreement. They waited for the other two pilots in silence.

"I'm here," Quatre said. 

"So now we're waiting on Heero," Rayne told them. They spotted him walking towards the Wing Zero.

"Guess we're leaving then," Duo said as he went to the Deathscythe. Rayne and Quatre both went to their Gundams and began switching on controls. 

"I'm headin' out...meet you guys there," Rayne said through the com-link. She typed in a code and the Icewing transformed into something of a shuttle. The engine ignited and within minutes the Icewing was away from the mobile suit hangar, heading for outer space.

~*~

Taking a moment to look at the Earth, Rayne slowed the engine of the Icewing almost to a complete stop. _"Why would anyone want to destroy this...?"_ She stared at the Earth for a while, as if it was the first time she had ever seen it.

__

"You miss so much living in the colonies," she thought. _"But seeing the Earth like this isn't part of it."_

"Rayne!" Duo's happy-go-lucky face appeared on the vid-link. "Didya run low on fuel or somethin'?"

"No," Rayne said with a laugh. "I was just taking time to look at Earth...I may not get a chance to go back."

"C'mon, don't be so negative!" Duo told her. "We're all gonna get out of this alive, and don't think otherwise." His words just magnified the sinking feeling in her stomach. 

__

"This'll be the fight of your life, Rayne," she told herself as she saw the sihlouette of Libra in the distance. And with its appearance came a sense of fear. 

"That's what it represents," Rayne whispered. "Libra is supposed to represent fear."

~*~

Relena Peacecraft looked out the window of her private shuttle and watched the stars slowly glide by. They weren't actually moving, of course, but they seemed to be. She stood up and began to walk around after the 'fasten seatbelt' sign dimmed. 

She looked out the panoramic rear window and saw the Earth. _"What does the Earth mean for me?"_ she wondered. _"For my brother, it is a sign of battle. For the people in the colonies, it is a relic of beauty. Does it have a meaning for me?"_

With a sigh she moved closer to the window. _"I know. The Earth means a home...for millions -billions- of people, and for me...if Milliardo destroys it, he will kill billions of innocent people. How could he even think of doing such a thing?"_

Within the shadow of the Earth Relena saw a few distant moving objects. Wondering what they were, she tried to get a better view. She recognized them as shuttles.

"They're flying too close together to be civilian shuttles...the Gundams..." She knew it was them, it _had_ to be them. _"Heero...going off to battle again,"_ she thought. 

"Please," Relena whispered, "Don't die."

~*~

The battle had already begun when the four Gundams arrived. The White Fang and OZ troops were evenly matched. 

"Time to party!" Rayne joked. The other pilots were not quite as enthusiastic. Rayne shrugged and typed in a code...the Icewing began to transform again into the shape of a mobile suit. And they all charged into the battle.

Relena watched the battle, the war, from afar...safe in her shuttle. Then she opened a vid-link with her brother.

"Milliardo," she said simply as his face appeared on the screen.

"Why have you come out here, little sister?" he asked.

"To talk you out of this," she told him.

"You're too late," Milliardo said. "I have made up my mind."

"How will destroying the Earth make any kind of difference?!" Relena demanded, raising her voice beyond the point of being calm for the first time in a while.

"The Earth is responsible for starting these wars," her brother told her. "And it will be responsible for ending them."

"Peace cannot be achieved like that!" And that's when she discovered a grim reality... _"Peace can only be realized with your death, Milliardo."_

"Relena, don't try to change my mind." Reena stood with a determined glare on her face. 

__

"I will do everything in my power to make sure you don't do this, Milliardo," she thought stubbornly. _"I won't let you do this."_

~*~

The Gundams were fighting desperately to keep their lives. In the center of the most brutal battle was the Wing Zero. Inside its cockpit Heero was proving to everyone why he had the nickname of the 'Perfect Soldier'. The sky lit up with explosions as Heero blasted away mobile dolls with his buster rifle. 

He got discouraged for a moment and the Wing Zero suffered a blow to the head. He winced as he was thrown back against his seat and fought back.

Quatre tried to concentrate as he battled the mobile dolls. The Sandrock Gundam threw its twin heat scythes _(A/N: Sooo sorry if I got the weapon wrong...)_ and lanced through three mobile dolls with them. 

The Deathscythe was practically all over the battle'field', going from one group of mobile dolls to another. From inside the cockpit Duo commanded the Gundam to slice through the dolls wit its beam scythe. He destroyed them in large groups.

"Hee-YA!" Rayne cried from inside the Icewing. As she pulled her beam saber away from the damaged Virgo mobile doll, she grinned. Its explosion became one of the 'fireworks' in the show. She repeatedly did the same thing, while at the same time showering the mobile dolls with bullets from the Icewing's forehead gattling guns. 

It was quite a show.

~*~

Numbers were dropping very low for both OZ and White Fang. The four Gundams fought tiredly for their lives, for their freedom...for their home, the Earth. They had begun to believe that all was lost. They saw troops of mobile dolls keep coming from Libra and thought that they had been defeated.

Then came something unexpected. Something that made everyone stop. Something that would impact everyone forever.

Libra powered up its main cannon.

"What the hell are they doing?!" Duo demanded. Rayne froze. 

__

"It's happening again," she realized.

"They're gonna try and destroy us," she said aloud to the others.

"Not with that...they wouldn't! The Earth is right behind us!" Quatre pointed out.

"That's just an added bonus for them."

"We've gotta move, the cannon's about to fire!" The four pilots propelled themselves away from the cannon's wide range.

And it fired.

Rayne screamed as the Icewing jolted back. It had been partially hit in the blast, but that wasnt why she screamed.

She looked back at the Earth and saw a gaping hole where the cannon had hit.

"No!" Quatre yelled. 

"They...I'll kill those bastards!" Rayne shouted. She started for Libra, but was stopped by a barrier of mobile suits. She drew her beam saber and found that it was no longer working. She tried the gattling guns...but she was out of bullets.

She was surrounded...as were the other pilots, by hundreds of Taurus and Virgo mobile dolls. And she thought it was the end.

"They'll have fireworks at our funeral, right?" she asked the other pilots. 

"Who knows? If we play our cards right, we won't be having a funeral any time soon," Duo told her.

"So we'd might as well fight?" Rayne suggested.

"Yep. Let's kick it!"

**__**

Conclusion: Destiny Defined

(The song lyrics are from Savage Garden's song _Crash and Burn_. I know I probably got some of 'em wrong, but I did the best I could.)

__

When you feel all alone,

And a loyal friend is hard to find,

It's hard to find relief,

And people can be so cold.

"Damnit! There are too many!" The Icewing Gundam propelled itself towards a Taurus mobile suit and went into hand-to-hand combat with it.

"We're not gonna make it!" Duo called through the com-link.

"We have to!" Rayne snapped. "I didn't come this far just to die!" She thought for a few moments about her options. _"There's only one thing I can do,"_ She concluded, suddenly feeling calm.

"Heero, Duo, Quatre...you guys get out of here," she said.

"Rayne, what are you gonna do?" Duo demanded.

"If someone's going to die, then I figure it's got to be me. Heero's a perfect soldier, Quatre's a great leader-type person, and Duo, you're a better fighter than I am. So if this is how it has to end, then this is how it's gotta end," Rayne stated.

"Rayne, you idiot! You can't!"

__

When darkness is upon your door,

And you feel like you can't take anymore...

"I _told_ you, get outta here!" Rayne growled. Heero and Quatre wordlessly and reluctantly pulled away from the Icewing.

"Rayne, I didn't plan on losing anyone here!" Duo told her.

"Someone once told me, _'always plan for the worst.'_ Do me a favor, Duo. Find Max for me...and tell him what happened here. That he'll always be my closest friend."

"I'm not gonna let you do this!" Duo screamed.

"Get out of here, Duo! This is what should have happened to me the first time!" Finally, Duo propelled the Deathscythe away from the battle and the damaged Icewing.

Rayne smiled sadly to herself as she pushed the self-detonate device.

"One minute thirty seconds to self-detonation," the computer-generated warning voice said.

__

"If I'm gonna die any ways, I might as well have a little fun," Rayne thought. She recklessly attacked anything and everything that she saw.

"One minute to self-detonation."

"You'd think one minute would pass faster than this," Rayne muttered as she kept slaughtering the mobile suits. 

"Thirty seconds to self-detonation."

"Come on, come on..." Rayne propelled the Icewing towards the largest groups of mobile suits.

"Ten seconds to self-detonation."

"Almost there..."

"Nine...eight...seven..." Rayne laughed to herself.

"Six...five...four..."

"Guess this is it then, Riverdown...Icewing."

"Three..."

Rayne quickly opened a com-link to the three other Gundams, just quick enough for her to say, "Good-bye, my friends."

"Two..." Rayne didn't have time to cry.

"One...Self-detonation activated."

And the sky lit up with a tremendous blast.

Let me be the one you call,

If you jump, I'm ready to fall,

Lift you up and fly away with you,

Into the night.

The Gundam pilots shielded their eyes from the blast. Most of the other mobile suits near the Gundam were destroyed too, creating a show in the sky. When it was over, they looked back. Nothing remained of the Icewing, or their friend.

"Bye, Rayne," Quatre muttered.

"You fool," Duo said quietly. "You saved us all."

__

If you need to fall apart,

I can mend a broken heart,

If you need to crash, then crash and burn,

You're not alone.

The End...?

A/N: Whew! That was a long one! You know, in online format this is 116 pages long! Yeah, yeah, it was a sorry ending. But I suck at endings any ways...sorry. Well, did you enjoy _Silent Storm_? Yes, I changed the name...I didn't like _Rainstorm_ any more. Anyone for a sequel? Send comments to [Starseeker__1@hotmail.com][1] or post a review!

   [1]: mailto:Starseeker__1@hotmail.com



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